Funder and Ditenin'

The other night we had a BIG storm here in KY. I think Louisville got 8-10" of rain, and about 4 people died in the Lexington area from flooding. The storm started right before Gabe's bedtime with random quietish thunder and occasional lightening. Gabe has this combined fascination with and fear of lightening and thunder. It is the only thing that he has been consistently worried about. We talked about the lightening and thunder during our bedtime routine, and he seemed ok, but when we went to put him to bed, he clung onto me, and did NOT want to go into bed all by himself with the unpredictable thunder and lightening outside. So Tim and I decided to go to bed early since we were both tired anyways, and took him over to our bed. It ended up being him still chattering away about the "funder and ditenin' " while we were both basically on the very edge of exhausted sleep. He fell asleep around 11:30, right before the real storm hit. The next morning, he woke up talking about the lightening and thunder too. I was glad he could fall asleep feeling safe and secure, instead of alone and worried in his crib.

In other Gabe news - man, that kid is growing! It always surprises me when his 18 month clothes don't really fit right. He is a "2T"-er. He weighs 26 pounds, and he really seems to have gotten taller. He is at such an adorable stage; I see why people like this 2 year bit, with his little words and baby face. He is such a parrot - he repeats everything you say. He likes to cuddle, and really is a good boy who listens. He now has a sense of things being "funny" or "silly". It surprised me the other day when he told me I was being silly when I was doing something.

The puppets that Grandma Carol and Aunt Lynette gave him continue to hold this fascination for him. We have been sort of surprised to see how he interacts with them, like they are people. Even when we are just using our own voices, his eyes sort of light up, and he gets this sort of shy delight on his face when they are "talking" to him, and he has these little conversations with them, and responds to them, and gives them things. It would be fun to take him to see a puppet show, if he likes things like that so much.

Sometimes when he is going to bed, he asks for me to sit in the chair beside his bed. Now, this might be ok if he was a child that fell asleep in 5 minutes, but it takes him a while to fall asleep usually anyways, and often if he has me sitting there, it is just fodder for delight and jumping around and talking. Plus...I get so INCREDIBLY ANTSY after I've been sitting there about 3 minutes, especially if I have been working all day. The nice thing is that when I tell him I'm going to go sit in the chair "out there" (office, living room), that still seems to pacify him. I guess he understands that I'm not far away. Tonight he wanted to go lay in "Mama's bed", but when I told him that he needed to sleep in his own bed, and that Mommy would be right outside the door and would come in if he needed her, he repeated that several times "outside door", and was fine when I left. I'm really glad that makes things ok for him, because it is a drag and a half to sit for an indefinite period in the room of a child who doesn't show any sign of going to sleep anytime soon.

We actually had to rearrange his bedtime routine in the past week, because he was having a lot of trouble going to sleep, and after I put him to bed one night around 10:15 and he stayed up until about 12:30 yelling and grouching, we decided things MUST CHANGE. Now, we do not let him watch TV or play football after his bath, but do quiet things like read books. Instead of leaving the hall light on, which he used to prefer, now I try to make it as dark and night-like back there in his corner of the house as I can. We also make sure he has a very good snack before bed - I think that was one reason he was having trouble before; even though he would have his before-bed milk, I think he needed something more. And bedtime has been SO MUCH BETTER that it is amazing. It is so much nicer when he goes to sleep ok, because it actually gives us an evening.