Sleepy Type of Pride

In the past, I have generally prided myself on my children all being good sleepers.  Naptime and bedtime around here have never been too much of an issue.  (Well if you don't count Megan who from the time she could open her bedroom door at eighteen months, comes out an average of 4,391 times before finally falling asleep.)  And I know, I know priding myself on a parenting issue isn't exactly proper, but when there aren't too many things to actually pride myself on in the area of parenting, I have always run with the fact my children are good goer-to-bedders.

Well until a few weeks ago.

When Drew has decided he doesn't have to go to bed at the same time as Luke and Joshua.  Or maybe it is Luke that has declared Drew not allowed in the room when he is going to bed because Luke seems to have some kind of issue with his head getting stepped on.  Or perhaps it is Joshua who kicks Drew out because he fears his place next to Luke in bed is threatened by Drew wanting to join them in the same bed.

Three boys in the same bed trying to go to sleep at the same time?
It hasn't been going so well.

So, instead, I've swallowed my pride and our evenings go something like this:

When the children are finally settled in bed, Mike goes to the bedroom to lay down himself (combination of recovering from back surgery and the weather preventing any evening walks, yard work or sitting on the front porch!)  I join him and we either chat, read, he watches American Idol, I work on the computer, or any other plethora of things a person does at the end of the day.  All the while Drew wanders in and out of our room and attempts to open the locked bedrooms to tease and annoy join trying-to-sleep-siblings.

After an hour or so of playing, Drew while rubbing his eyes, will point to his room.  It's his way of communicating he is finally ready for bed.

Other times, he just settles right down next to Daddy.

PS:  If it is the night before your birthday, and you keep telling your big sister that you can't fall asleep because you are so excited, your sister will convince you that an eye mask will make slumber come more easily.  And when Mom comes to check on you a couple of hours later, she thinks you sleeping with a mask on is so endearing, but all she can get is this blurry photo because heaven help us all if you wake up and we have to start the falling asleep process all over again...

And that is how we slumber around here.