A Few Stories Before Bed

Our evening routine is so routine as to be laughable. Kieran hardly fights going to bed, but once he's settled in, even if he is dog tired, he will get up, open the door and lay at the top of the steps until we come get him and put him back in bed. It's the second "good night" that's the real one - and we all know it. Sometimes it takes him 15 minutes to get up and open the door. Sometimes only 5. Either way it pauses whatever we're doing and refocuses us on Kieran.

I've been carpooling with a dad in the neighborhood who broke his foot and needed a better way to get back and forth than the Metro. He and I can get a bit carried away on the adult talk and Kieran has finally gotten more vocal about attention (which I'm actually happy about but know I will come to regret) from me. We'll be chatting and I'll hear Kieran tell me about the alligator at school that bit him and I'll stop, tell him "Well, I hope you told the alligator how you felt." Kieran then proceeds to tell us for a few minutes how it was "not nice" and "I told alligator, I don't like it!". He then gets quiet again. This interruption is welcome and fun. His sense of whimsy is just developing and I have no issues feeding it.

He's been very mommy centric this week. Every morning he crawls into bed, lays next to me for a little bit and then quietly tells me "get up". He whispers, so as to not wake Ken. This morning I was hoping to get a bit more sleep. I asked if Ken could take him downstairs. He said "no, mommy do it". *sigh* I guess I'll sleep in eventually. Maybe when he's a teenager. Or in college.