Sucker!

Oy, we are having sleep issues with a certain little 3.5 year old boy. I've always been so proud of him being a great little sleeper....well that has come back to bite me in the butt. About a month ago he decided sleep was not necessary and we haven't yet figured out why. The best conclusion is that he's going through a phase....please let this come to an end. We've tried locking him in the room, letting him scream, rocking, bribing, negotiating, taking away movies/tv that might be scaring him...the next thing is total room darkening blinds because he does have some light that comes in from the street. We'll figure it all out eventually...hopefully soon...Momma needs her sleep.

Anyway, lately he's insistent that I don't lock the door and that I leave the gate open. We've cooperated thus far because those are the nights he's actually been staying in his bed. Tonight I thought I had him asleep and I headed to the basement to do a few things and get all my work stuff organized for tomorrow. Pretty soon I heard the pitter patter of troublemaking feet. I let it go on for a few minutes thinking he was up to no good, but deciding to see what happened. What was I thinking?? I went upstairs to find a tired little boy who could barely keep his eyes opened, yet he'd climbed on the kitchen counter and eaten 1/2 of a banana I had laying next to my lunch bag and then got into the cabinet to find the container of bribe material -- DumDums aka as SUCKERS in our house. Guess I was the big sucker tonight. He had taken the plastic tub of them (about 10 or so) to the couch, unwrapped everyone of them and was sharing them with the dogs! When I busted him in the act he actually shoved one up the leg of his pajamas and ran upstairs to his bed. When questioned "Do you have a sucker in your pants" he attempted to innocently say, "No sucker mommy". I fished it out of the pants and told him to go to sleep.

That was about 20 minutes ago and he's been out of bed approximately 10 times since then. I'm sitting on my bed with the door open watching him on the video monitor. Each time he gets out of bed I yell out to him and he runs back to bed. I THINK I may have finally won...he's under the covers laying very still.

Well...I won until he crawls into bed about 1am. Which reminds me of another little sleep ditty....a few nights ago I woke up to find that he was not in his bed, not in our bed and nowhere to be found. He couldn't go far....only has access to his room, his brothers and ours at night (when the gate at the top of the stairs is closed). I searched everyone before waking Jeff up in a panic. He sat up on the edge of the bed, looked down and discovered Carlton sound asleep in a pile of pillows and dirty laundry (cause for some reason men thing laundry belongs on the floor by the bed) next to Jeff's side of the bed. He was sleeping so peacefully I put a blanket on him and he stayed there all night.

It's a good thing I have a hair appointment on Friday because this kid is causing the gray hairs to multiply!

He appears to be asleep...SCORE for the mommy!