This is actually old news, but one night I was given the kid-equivalent of a tongue lashing for committing what has become something of a cardinal sin.

Okay, so Andrew didn’t put the boots to me and cause me to tear up from a withering verbal assault, but he did adorn the house with his special breed of mannish wailing when I put him to sleep one night and turned on his mobile.

Now understand that his mobile has long had its moveable features removed, and given that he’s so comfortable in his “big bed”, the mobile is nothing more than a music player sitting on a chair in one corner of his room. And for some time, he seemed to enjoy requesting the “red” music before eventually falling asleep.

But not on that one night, and boy have I learned my lesson since. Apparently I had misstepped by turning on his music – he wanted no part of it.

And ever since, when asked, he’s adamant that he does not want the music to play when he lays his head on his pillow at night.

Okay, so I could accept that without much in the way of a teary eye. Certainly it was nothing more than a preference.

But somewhere along the line he also decided that he no longer wanted any of his daily comforts to accompany him to sleepy land. Not his various cars, not his teddy bears. On some nights they are even banished from taking up residence beside his bed, on the floor.

Which makes me wonder – what is he doing to fall asleep?

Certainly it’s great that he falls asleep every night with no fuss, but his refusal to do so with any childish aid of any sort? Admirable, but again, a little bittersweet. What will be the next youthful indulgence to get the axe in this little man’s quest to become something more?

We took Andrew to an indoor fair the other day. And while he seemed to enjoy himself, I couldn’t help but feel that the end of one era was imminent and a new one was just around the corner.

He first seemed to be taken with one ride, whose most striking feature was that it was the tallest (or second tallest) ride in the fair. No matter how many times I asked him if he wanted to go on it, the answer was always the same: “Yes”.

So here we have a child who has never been on something that monstrous, yet was keen to undertake the challenge. And while that’s quite admirable, it also felt like the seeds of independence – and specifically, independent thought – had started to sprout.

I took him on that ride, and he enjoyed it. He laughed and giggled as I spun the gondola around and around – slowly at first, then faster as I realized that he wasn’t afraid. I was very proud of him in that moment.

Later he took a turn in kid-sized bumper boats, in a kid-sized pond. And while it was previously the case that he couldn’t bear to let go of Mommy or Daddy’s hand and venture on his own, he now managed to do just that. It took a little coaching, but he allowed the nice lady to help him into the kid-sized boat and float off on a kid-sized adventure while Daddy turned his back – briefly – to ascend to the adult-sized viewing area.

And he was content – until he decided that he had had enough, wanted out, and would stand and get himself out if that’s what it came to.

He’s still an innocent boy after all.

…that the key to consistency is to not use the potty seat on the grownup commode?!?

<confused – but happy 🙂 >

So it’s been interesting putting Andrew to bed lately. Experiences have ranged from incessant screaming – usually as a result of falling asleep in the car and being rudely awakened upon getting home – to a general displeasure with the notion of being left alone to go to bed, to being quite accommodating and laying down when asked.

Being the male parental unit, I have the natural (dis)pleasure of having no natural maternal instinct with which to justify my actions and decisions. Which is a long way of saying that the Mrs. does most of the intricate caretaking, which seems to include bedtime.

But for whatever reason, the little man has been giving Mommy a hard time of late in matters of nocturnal slumber – while I seem to get his best behaviour, which includes laying down upon command and remaining generally content until Sleep finally comes knocking.

Mommy shouldn’t take it personally. Kids can be fickle, especially at the tender age of Almost-2.

But the little guy definitely had me on pins and needles this evening, as he seemed reluctant to lay his head on his little pillow despite my fervent requests. This evening he had elected to be partial to a toy airplane that Mommy had brought home a few weeks ago, and in an effort to keep the boat stable we tend to let him hold on to his favoured toy after bathing and just before bedtime. Normally he’s fine giving it up just before he goes in the crib, but tonight the signals seemed muted.

So there we were – me with blanket in hand and he sitting in the crib with plane held high. “Oh no” I thought; “He won’t be so cooperative tonight”. And for what seemed like an eternity, there he sat, plane held high, with me holding his blanket waiting for him to lay down so I could cover him.

Then my heart leapt into my throat as he stood up; surely this was the beginning of an hour-long protest. My ability to bid him a happy goodnight had apparently waned.

And then, he raised the plane even higher and moved it convincingly in my direction. And finally I understood – it was bedtime Daddy, not playtime. The plane had no business being in bed with him, and he wanted me to take it. And I having done as he wanted, he immediately lay down to begin his customary soft soliloquy, culminating 20 minutes later – as usual – with Sleep.

Thanks son 🙂