But last night, we got a little surprise drama that we didn't expect.
We had just put our four year old son in bed and were about to breath a sigh of relief when we heard that dreaded door open and those little footsteps coming towards our room.
"I can't sleep!"
"Go back to bed." Take son to bed, put him in, kiss him goodnight.
Five minutes later. Door, footsteps, "I can't sleep!" Take him to bed, kiss him goodnight.
Another five minutes, same thing. "I can't sleep!"
"This is the last time I'm telling you, go back to sleep!"
"But I can't sleep!"
Then I thought I would try something new.
"You know what, you say you can't sleep but if you listen to your body carefully you'll hear that your body is telling you that it's tired. Like right now, you see how you keep yawning? That's your body telling you that you want to sleep! You need to listen to your body. Now, go back to bed."
He looked at me for a few minutes and thought about what I said. Then he turned around and went back to his room.
I'm so clever I thought to myself. I reasoned him back to bed! Yeah for me.
But five minutes later, we heard the familiar sounds again- door, footsteps, and then:
"Mommy, my body is telling me that I need to sleep in your bed for a little bit!"
"What? I told you not to come out here again?"
"But you told me to listen to my body and my body is telling me that I need to sleep in your bed for a little bit!"
"GO BACK TO BED!"
Then my son starts crying and saying the following repeatedly,
"but...my...body...is...telliinnng...me...(sniff sniff) that...I.need to sleep in your bed for a little (loud crying with lots of tears for the finally!) BIT!!!"
I start laughing hysterically. I can't stop. I'm shaking I'm laughing so hard. I lift him up and carry him back to his bed all the while still laughing (as he's crying and telling me about his body's need to sleep in our bed).
I kiss him goodnight.
That's the last we hear from him until morning.
I guess his body didn't need to sleep in our bed after all!
He's such a little thinker!
ReplyDeleteI just escaped Oliver's room. He's so good about going to bed now (I mean after he's in his room and we're reading books - it often takes a little elbow grease to get him upstairs...) that I'll agree to stay with him until he goes to sleep if he makes it clear that he needs me. I always lie down with him for a couple of songs on his bedtime CD, but just as song #2 was ending he threw an arm across me, looked very seriously at me and said "wie down." So I knew I needed to stay a little bit longer.
So I was there 15 minutes longer than usual. I guess his body was telling him that it was time to go to sleep - as long as I was there with him!
my kid is always telling me that she is not tired, period. Her body is telling her she doesn't need to lie down ANYWHERE. Drives me nuts
ReplyDeletewhat a sweetie.
ReplyDeletealso, you are NEVER going to hear the end of what his body is telling him. ever.
Awww. Who knows what his body will tell him from now on... maybe his body needs more cookies, or more time at the park... You may have just created a "monster"! :-)
ReplyDeleteI have totally created a monster. In the middle of the night he came in and told us that his body needs to sleep in our bed. We were so tired that we said OK. Now I'm going to have to think of another brilliant idea to combat the listen to your body thing! LOL
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the headline to your post, I totally thought it was going to be potty-related. We used to use that phrase all the time for little Mr. dancing-from-one-foot-to-the-other "No, I don't have to go." ...Right before an "accident."
ReplyDeleteI had not thought of using that phrase for bedtime, generally because my guy's such a good sleeper. But I wish you lots of luck with the whole keeping him in his own bed all night. Nothing like a little churning toddler to interrupt a good night's sleep!