Don’t Tell!
Aidan got up at midnight last night after being asleep for only 2.5 hours. I went in there out of habit, felt a full diaper, but in my sleepy state I ushered him to bed without changing it and tried to calm him down through his screams of ‘mom, sit couch!’ and ‘mom, sit rock!’ I went back to bed and a minute later, he was standing by his door, light on, banging to be let out. Ryan went in there and at the sight of his dad, Aidan scurried to bed knowing that dad doesn’t mess around, but he was still crying.
Two minutes later, Ryan was fast asleep, snoring beside me, but even through his snores, I could hear Aidan’s tiny hand touching the door knob in an effort to get out of his room. His persistence got the better of me and I snuck downstairs to get him his juice, turned the heat up a degree to get the warm air pumping, and tip-toed into his room. I quickly changed his diaper while he sucked down his juice and he looked up at me and hesitantly asked, ‘mom, sit…couch?’ I stared into his blue eyes and said, ‘yes baby, we can sit on the couch.’
He was THRILLED at my answer because he expected me to say no. He smiled with the sippy cup’s spout between his teeth and let me scoop him up and quietly carry him into the blue-room (not sure why we call it this, since the walls are gray). We cuddled on the couch together – his legs tucked in tight to his body – my arms wrapped around him tight.
I breathed in deep the sweet scent of his hair, soaking up the moment. He handed me the cup and said ‘done’ – I set the cup down on the floor and he said, ‘mom, sit’ and I said, ‘ok baby, we can sit together, but just for a minute.’ One minute turned into five, which turned into ten. It was only seconds before he drifted off to sleep. I took one last moment to enjoy the weight of his baby body in my arms before I carried him to his bed and tucked his covers around him.
Before I knew it, Ryan was getting ready for work and walking out of our bedroom door at 5:30am – then I heard him go into Aidan’s room and tell him to go to bed. He only cried for a minute, then we were both sleeping quietly again in our own beds. The only reason Aidan got up at 5:30am is because he thought I’d come in, for the 3rd time that morning, and give him some love and attention. Shhh – don’t tell on me!
