I had just moved them from our bed into their cribs. (They refuse to go to sleep in their cribs anymore.) Noah was on his stomach, and it's difficult to turn him over onto his back to carry him 'cause he'll just flip back over onto his belly before I can scoop him up. So, I'm carrying him into their bedroom to put him into his crib, and his arms and legs are just dangling around my arms while his head nested precariously on my right bicep. Then I went back and got Grayson.
Apparently the ride over was a little too unsettling for Noah, and then when I dropped Grayson into his own crib, the noise was just too much, which got Noah howling, which got Grayson howling, which got them both trips back to "the green bed" (take a breath) after I tried rocking them to sleep in the glider to no avail. (by the way, that take a breath back there was actually an instruction for you, not a part of my narrative.I'd hate to have you pass out at your monitor solely due to my run-on sentences!)
Anyway, Theresa and I got ready for bed and the boys were moving around trying to get comfortable. Generally the configuration goes something like this (from left to right, looking up from the foot of the bed): me, Grayson, Noah, Theresa. And that's how it was last night.
The boys were settling down and Theresa and I were reading on our respective sides of the bed. Theresa's light went out first, and I think Noah and Grayson were both pretty much out by then. My light went out not long after that.
One thing that you should know about me, before I go on, is that I am a very sound sleeper. I can't tell you the last time that I remembered a dream. Generally, once I'm gone, I'm out for the duration. That being said, I was awakened at some point (I have no idea by what, but I have a pretty good idea by whom.) Theresa had already been flushed from her side of the bed. Actually, now that I think about it, I think I do know what awakened me. The pain that I was experiencing in my neck from having my head hang over the side of the bed. Grayson had his head wedged against the left side of my head, as I lay on my back. Apparently he had been leveraging himself against Noah's feet, as they both lay sideways across the bed with Noah's head being on the far side. And Grayson managed to move me into a less than comfortable sleeping position. The situation needed to be remedied before I could carry on with my much needed rest, so I twirled the boys into the proper position, Grayson clockwise and Noah anti-clockwise. (I was just working with a Brit, and it's amazing how quickly you pick things up - kind of like an accent when you're in the south.) (Although he called the intersection of two streets junctions rather than intersections, and I never seemed to pick that up.)
So, I drifted off to sleep.
Speaking of which, that reminds me of something that I was going to write about a few days ago.
Think of the social circle that you currently travel in. (If you have no social life, perhaps you can subsitute co-workers or neighbors. If none of those fit your situation, insert random strangers.) Inevitably, some of the individuals that you know will be older than you, and others will be younger. I suppose if you are really, really, really old, that may not apply to you, but I think for most of you, it will. Among that group will be a man of approximately fifty years of age. Picture that man going to sleep at night. (I'll leave the specifics up to your imagination.) Now, think about that moment right between awareness and slumber. Ideas, thoughts, images float through your head that may have no connection to anything other than your what your subconscious may be kicking around right then. How many of those fifty year old men do you picture with this running through their head?
When a fifty year old man has three children aged five and under, asking for the same song to be played over and over again on the way home from school, it is not very surprising what gets stuck in the ol' subconscious!
So, where was I? Oh yes, drifting off to sleep.
Until I awoke with Grayson furiously grinding the top of his skull into my chin.
We have very tactile children. All of them love being held, cuddled, touched. Often, after waking, Grayson will reach over and stroke the stubble on my cheek, first against the grain, then with it, feeling the difference in coarse roughness and lighter texture. Last weekend, I gave the boys their usual buzz cut with my twenty dollar Sav-On clippers. I believe that he was showing me that his week old stubble was stronger than my overnight growth.
And if you need something else to go to sleep by, I might recommend this:
(OK, so the audio is less than audiophile quality, but you get the idea!)
No comments:
Post a Comment