Procrastination

There are nights, when bed time is flawless. Go pee, wash your hands, brush your teeth, get your pj's on, climb in bed, read a bed time story, turn the music on, and fade the light, and without a word, he drifts silently into dreamland.

Then, there are nights where most of that happens, BUT only after about five times of asking, each time with increased frustration as he calls from his room "Mommy" for the 100th time and yells something like this:

I need a drink

I need to tell you something

I need to give you a kiss

I need to give you a hug

And so forth and so on.

At some point, there is the threatening to give spankings, but I can't quite bring myself to do it because honestly, how cute is it that he wants to kiss me under my chin because he knows it makes me laugh.

And, on this particular night of which I write, after the 45 minutes of pure procastination and complete uninterest in going to bed, he says,

"Mommy, can I sleep in your bed?"

Exhausted, not up for the battle, defeated, I say, "Yes."

I hear him guide down his slide with no hestitation and appear as fast as lighting in my room afraid I will change my mind with each passing second.

He snuggles in the bed, entangling himself all around me - like a pretzel, with his baby soft skin and his soft warm breath on me. And I entertain his kisses and hugs and pats.

Until, I finally say, "no more talking"! But of course after a moment of silence when I think I'm saved and hear only the candence of our breath as we finally relax, he says something funny that I can't resist and after a few more bouts of giggling, I again say "no more talking"!

And in one last attempt, I try to explain the invisible line that runs down the middle of the bed. The line that should keep him on dad's side, the line that always gets broken when he intrudes on my sleeping headquarters.

And so it goes, atleast a half dozen times during our sweet slumber, I push him back over that invisible line because he has pretzeled himself around me and I am suffocating from heat.

And he is so sweet and soft that I love touching his skin and watching him sleep. I think he slept like bear in hiberation and I woke up wondering if I ever went to sleep at all....good thing it was only Sunday.