..until now, that is. People who have seen us put August to bed for the past two plus years (who have kids) have always been impressed as to how we do it with such ease. We should have known better not to get so cocky. It really has been simple. We start about fifteen or so minutes before bedtime (between 7 and 7:30pm). We put on a nighttime diaper, put on his pajamas, brush his teeth, read him two books, sing him a song, and put him in his crib. That’s it folks. After that, he either falls right to sleep, or he talks to his Zebra for anywhere between ten minutes up to an hour. But he never cries. He has always happily gone to bed.
About a month ago, it started to become a little more interesting. I think what happened was he had a bad dream, and hasn’t been able to shake it. I say “I think” because I’m really not sure. All I know is that there is a blue and red stream, a grassy knoll (okay, not knoll, but hill, it’s funnier to say “knoll”), a jogging stroller, Brent and myself. And that’s all I know. Whatever it is about these items, though, August tells me that when he goes to bed he’s afraid of them. At first I just listened to him, told him that everything was okay, and he was fine with that. But now in the past two weeks this quiet conversation about streams has turned into August getting upset every time he knows it’s time for bed. The past three nights he’s been crying for no reason what-so-ever for us to come back into his room once we’ve left for the night. He just doesn’t want to go to bed so he’s coming up with things to talk about to put off bed time just a little longer.
Finally tonight, I’ve had it. Unfortunately for him, he’s been a pain in the ass all day. The “why” questions were incessant this morning, and then this afternoon he was incredibly needy. So when 7pm came around I was ready to have some space from him. August has other plans, though. The crying for no reason started immediately after he was placed in bed. I went in two times and after that I warned him I wasn’t going in again for the rest of the night. A parent should know better than to make promises they can’t keep. It’s been almost twenty minutes, and he’s still going in there.
I wonder who will give up first?
