Nighttime in the 'Hood

We've had Connor and Jamie together in the same room for about 3 months now, with pretty mixed success. Getting them to sleep is generally not too much of a problem, but keeping them that way is something else entirely. Connor is still waking up at least once at night and this gets Jamie up and he doesn't always handle that too well, so we end up putting Connor in the pack and play in our room for the rest of the night.

Here's a little snippet of how this can go at night: It begins with Connor, not crying, but making happy, silly noises in the crib. By the time I am down there, Jamie is crying and telling Connor to stop. This pleases Connor, who gets sillier. I arrive in the room and Connor beams and says "HIIIIEEEEEEE!!", as is his wont this days. I take Connor away to give him some milk and try and get him back to sleep. I get to the top of the stairs, Connor sees the milk and drops his pacifier on the ground. Jamie begins crying. I pick up the pacifier, not the easiest thing while holding a 20 pound baby, go down stairs and deal with Jamie's issue (music not loud enough). Go back upstairs. Connor sees the milk drops the pacifier to the floor. Jamie begins crying again. I pick the pacifier up, go down stairs deal with this issue (water needed). Go back upstairs. Connor sees the milk, drops the pacifier again. I pick it up again and give him the milk at last. An hour later he is sound asleep on the couch. Not nestled cozily in my arms, mind you, as would be very nice indeed, but on the couch, with his bottom in the air and his legs scrunched beneath him, his preferred sleeping position now.

Don't get any ideas

Sarah was taking the boys to school yesterday and so was on story duty. Now that Toonces is pretty much out, we've been scrambling a little. One thing that has been working are stories about a family of animals (they can be different species but are often feline) named Mommy, Daddy, Jamie and Connor. In this case, they were kitty cats and Sarah got the clever idea that they were in the car to go to Yavont. At this point Jamie cut in rather nervously and said "No, Mommy, they drove to the airport and took a PLANE to Yavont."

Seems that car trip has left its mark on all of us.

Sweet dreams

As he is going to bed at night Jamie always asks if there are going to be scary things, fireworks or thunder that night. Happily, I've been able to confidently answer in the negative lately, but we've also been talking about happy things to dream about. He had a play date with his friend Leah Mei this weekend, and that night said that he would dream about her. Then last night we saw Bella, with whom Jamie has always been quite taken, and later I asked him if he was going to dream about her. Yes, he said, and baseball. Bella and baseball, not bad.

How to make Mommy teary

Jamie has been getting a little mushy lately. Here's an example in a special guest contribution from Sarah:

Tonight Jamie and I were talking about when I was a little girl. He
asked if he was already an egg in my tummy then. I said yes, there was
always an egg in my belly named Jamie. He said, "Mom, when I was that
egg in your tummy I really loved you."

A bit of self-reflection

While their frequency seemed to diminish a little when we got back from Yavont, the why questions have been back with a vengeance lately. It is interesting to see some progression in the sophistication of the queries, however. Sure, there are still the unanswerable "Why this is Wednesday?" types, but there are some real advances, too. Sarah went away this past weekend and Jamie and I were talking about missing her, and he asked "Why I miss Mommy?". We came to the conclusion that it was because he loves Mommy, prompting the inevitable "Why I love Mommy?" There was a lot to be said in answering this, including, but not limited to: "Because she makes me feel cozy."

Anyway, this was a real step in self-examination I thought, away from such gems as "Why I did that?" and "Why this is my foot?"