Sleep stomper

P and BB having cracker snacks in P's cardboard house.


P needs 1.5 to 2 hours more sleep than I do each night. This is just enough time to finish the kitchen, toss laundry in the dryer, pick up toys, have a conversation with E, catch up on email and then choose from one of four "me" options: blog, read, watch a video, do some art. The child accepts none of this and has formally forbidden me to leave the bedroom when he is sleeping....

I've tried rising in the morning (my preference) to greet the day before the little man rouses. I love it. The little man, he hates it. He isn't a very solid sleeper in his last few hours and typically rolls over to hold hands or share a pillow before he zonks for his last set of zzz's. When I'm absent for the hand hold the last zzz's get skipped and then he's not only angry but also tired. Not an ideal situation.

So I sneak out after he falls asleep at night. Also a sweet, if not sleepy, piece of peace. He rarely wakes in the first few hours... until recently. Three nights in a row his scared little voice screamed to me over the baby monitor. Hurrying in, I'd cuddle him and he'd quickly go back to sleep... after chastising me for my absence :) Then, the fourth night, I thought I heard some unhappy sounds, but its often hard to tell with our white noise machine blasting through our static-y monitor and the dryer banging away through the wall. After a pause in my art, I went back to work for a brief moment... until stomping suddenly sprang up behind me. Startled, I turned to see an angry four year old coming through the kitchen, arms pumping like a drill sergeant, bare feet stomping out his disapproval, face contorted into a half cry, half accusation. It was Precious. E had also paused his work to see what the commotion was and we both burst into laughter and hugs. The child, happy to be hugged and not ushered back to bed, rolled his eyes as far into his head as they would go (laughter and gushing both being things he's not very comfortable with) and was even unable to suppress a wry grin. It was one of those moments that I hope lives as a perfect mental video for the rest of my life - it so summed up P's little personality - and was pretty freakin' cute to boot ;)