Go Tuck Yourself

Lunch went better today. Guitarman and I had a little chat last night about his work stress (he had a rough night getting Wee Laddie to sleep, which was just not a good capper to his day) and why Wee Laddie is acting the way he is. I think some of it is that we’re not as consistent as we need to be. He’s a smart kid and will push every button if he gets a chance. We laugh about this, but he’s not even subtle about his attempts at manipulation. He’ll say, “Wanna go to Burger King for lunch today?” I’ll say, “No, not today.” He says, “Yes?” I say, “Nope.” He says, “You DO wanna do that?” I’m like, “No, were going to go to the mess hall.” He says, "Okay, let's go to Burger King." He does give it up eventually, but usually not before he tries it on his dad, too.

We also decided to work on getting Wee Laddie to go to sleep on his own at night. The whole co-sleeping thing has continued, really, because Guitarman likes having the extra snuggle time with Wee Laddie… and the tucking-in thing has turned into me just going to sleep with Wee Laddie (on my nights) just because I keep falling asleep and even when I set the alarm on my cell phone I don’t get back up. I’d be happy to have my evenings back… it’d be nice to see my husband once in a while, even if it is in front of the TV. For that matter, it’d be fun to catch up on some of the TV shows I haven’t seen in ages.

So I warned Wee Laddie and we worked on it tonight (Guitarman was at the movie). I gave him a huge hug and told him that I know this is a big change and a big deal, and I wanted him to know that I know this is important. I told him that I know he can do it and that I’d be right outside the door. I said I’d check on him in 10 minutes. He said, “Three minutes.” I said, “Let’s try 7.” He said, “Four.” (Was he really understanding that? I don’t know for sure.) I said, “I’ll come back in 5 minutes. You’ll be just fine for 5 minutes.” And he was, and this time he agreed to 10 minutes. It took him until sometime after 10 to go to sleep, but he did it and he didn’t cry! And I got a chance to praise him lots: You’re so brave, you’re doing great, you’re such a big boy, I’m so proud of you. I think he was proud of himself too, as he told me on one visit, “I’m not crying.” And in the midst of all of this, he even got up to go pee once. For real, not just as a stall.