A little thing called love . . . . .

Most evenings my adorable little 8 month old follows a fairly structured routine and does wonderfully. It starts around 7 when he is screeching for me to put him in his highchair because he knows its dinner time. And let me tell you if I am 2 minutes past 7 that screeching can most likely be heard in Boston! It’s not a cry, or a whine, it is more of a grip w/out words in a very loud tone. (He’s like that baby in the sharpie commercial that when she touches his feet to the ground he screeches and instantly stops when picked up – only sometimes) So anyway, I put him in his chair and he proceeds to devour as much food as I will give him. And during this eating frenzy he also has his sippy cup of juice. When he’s done eating and wiped off, it’s off to the bathtub. This is by far his favorite activity next to eating. We play in the tub for a while, singing his favorite songs as he chases the duckies around the tub. After the tub it is off the living room for the fight of powder, lotion and pajamas. He thinks he should be allowed to roam the house naked (which he isn’t because he thinks it is particularly funny to pee everywhere!) so he isn’t very agreeable to this process. By this time it is around 8:00, we play for a little while and then by 8:15 he wants a bottle. By 8:40 it is time to lay him down in his bed. He’ll usually roll over fuss (once in a while) and pass out until around 6:00 the next morning. I can’t tell you how thankful I have been over the past few months that he is so easy and sleeps so well!
Well on occasion he finds his routine lacking and refuses to go to sleep when put down for the night. Last night for example, I had had a wretched headache for 2 complete days and so after the bottle he was laying next to me on the couch not wanting to close his eyes but unable to keep them open so I asked his big sister (who is constantly asking to put him to bed, and/or putting him to bed at odd times) to go and lay him down. She gladly complied. The other sister was in the shower off of our room and so between the two of them he did not lie down immediately but stood up and grouched at them. Them rather than leaving the room, the one laid down on my bed to try and soothe him to sleep (I am opening laughing at this, because it was their father’s idea and I’ve told him ten billion times it doesn’t work) so she comes out of the bedroom and he’s still grouching. A few minutes later the one in the shower (the younger one) comes walking out of my room dripping wet w/a towel on precariously holding her baby brother – who was GRINNING ear to ear. He had been saved. And. Was. Wide. Awake. So finally I’m onto my point. After a few minutes of squirreling around the shower girl had dressed and came in a sat in the recliner w/her baby brother sitting next to her. He of course was being complacent because he knew I’d go put him back to bed. It was the sweetest picture, the two of them sitting in that chair together, him so content and her so proud that she was ‘taking care’ of him. But of course, my head was slamming way too bad to go find the camera and capture it! Damn it!!!!! I went to lie down in bed and a little while later his dad came carrying him in, he was out cold, apparently he had sat there in the recliner with her until he fell asleep. She was so proud.