Toddler Nite Nite

Last night, I was reminded of how fun (and frustrating) it can be to be the parent of a toddler. Enrique has always been what his former family doctor called "a wakeful baby." Read into this--he has NEVER liked going to sleep. Even as an infant, he would cry and cry and cry when it was time to lay him down to sleep. Fast forward 22 months, and not much has changed...except that now, he can do really cute things to procrastinate around bed time.

Thankfully, Enrique loves to take his nightly bath. All we have to say is "bathy time," and he's running us up the stairs. He throws his bath toys into the tub, and if he could take all of his clothes off by himself, he'd jump into the tub before I could put him in there :-)

But after the bath...that's another story...

Books, doctors, baby experts all say that the key to night time is to set a predictable routine. Most include bath, a bedtime story, and then, lights out. Well, that is essentially our routine--although Enrique has always been soothed by music, so after the story, we sing a few songs together. Once the lights go out, the procrastinating begins. Last night was no different--after going through our usual routine, I turned the lights out, kissed him good night, and sat to wait for the procrastinating. After a few minutes, I heard "eyes, ears, nose, mouth, belly, etc..." as Enrique pointed to each of these body parts and recited them to me.

Luz: Yes, baby, now go to sleep.

Enrique: Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, belly...

I look over and see that Enrique is now pointing these body parts out on his toy monkey that is in bed with him.

Luz: Yes, baby, now go to sleep.

Then, come the legs. My son must have the worst case of restless legs syndrome in history. First the left flies into the air and lands with a thud on the bed. Then, the right. Left, then right. Right, then left. If I could find a way to immobilize those legs at bedtime, I would cut our bedtime routine in half.

After a bit, the legs are still...no noise is coming from his bed except for the steady sound of his comfortable breathing. As my hand approaches the door to leave, my little man springs up in bed and I hear:

Enrique: Enrique did it!

He looks around for moment, and then collapses back into his bed...finally, asleep.

This process takes anywhere between 1-2 hours. It usually leaves me pretty exhausted, and shortly after he is asleep, I collapse on my bed (but I don't do anything to procrastinate finding my way to dream land :-)