Snuggle Time

You might think the title means snuggle time with parent and child but in this instance, not so much. We have had d1 and d2 in the same room for well over a year now, in bunk beds, and this has been happening randomly since the beginning. This is how the story usually goes:

(somewhere in the night)

d1 - 'Daddy, I had a bad dream about bears/snakes/monsters.'

D1 - 'It's okay. There's no bears/snakes/monsters. Go get back in your bed.'

A few minutes later you hear....

d2 (in whiny tone) - 'Noooooo bubby. Stooooop.'

d1 - 'Move over. I had a bad dream.'

d2 - 'Get out of my bayed!' (this is really how it sounds with his lil' twang)

So we usually assume d2 won the battle and everyone is back where they belong. Until morning when we find this arrangement when we go to wake them.....

Either he gave in to d1's pleas or d1 waited until he was asleep to sneak in. Who knows. Those two are a mess.

And for the record, d1 never asks to sleep with us. And, no, we are not cold-hearted - if he asked, we might say yes but why open ourselves up to a habit we might have to turn around and break?

Like this habit....

This child is always sucking these two fingers. Always. Probably half the pictures we have of him have his fingers in his mouth. This past week, we tried to 'train' him off of the fingers and it really wasn't very successful. We pinned a sock over that hand but he ultimately just sucked with the sock on. It may be that he's teething again and it just comforts him so we'll try again later. Our pediatrician had me freaked out that his own daughter (who is now 4) still sucks her fingers and he's tried splinting/spicy nail polish/etc. to no avail. I'm concerned that a doctor (and a GREAT one) can't find a way around this but I'm not stressing. He's 11 months old. Maybe I'll start worrying about that when I'm sending him to K-5 and his fingers prohibit him from saying the pledge of allegiance. Until then, we'll get by. Maybe by fighting every possible virus out there that he picks up and sucks on but that's life, right?

And these 'habits' aren't really new to our family. d1 didn't take a paci but loved his 'Froggie.' He had one of those animals filled with little micro-beads that he carried everywhere. However, the obsession wasn't really with the frog but with the tag. He would take it between two of his fingers and rub it and make a moaning noise. In fact, the moan was borderline-creepy but it was soothing to him and put him to sleep every night. So, it was a sad day when Froggie went 'on vacation' and never came home. Actually, we tried to toss him out during our move to SC - I mean, it was time; this poor guy had taken more swims in the toilet than I care to remember - but D1's mom thought that was cruel and a piece of his childhood so I think she kept it. I didn't argue with her. If she wants a green-turned-light-brown frog that has a distinct odor resembling a mixture of urine and milk, who am I to stop her? In any case, Froggie never made his way home to us and we never really had much problems with it. But, again, he was almost 3.

d2, bless his little heart, took a paci like a champ. We tried it with d1 and had no luck but thought we would try with d2 and it was great. And I don't really remember having to get up in the night to search for it for him much (though I may have just repressed those sleepy times) so it was more of a daytime thing. We were a little more rigid with his habit, though. We 'pulled the plug' at around 11 months. In fact, I believe it was the same time Froggie took a hike. Oh yes, I remember. Like it was yesterday. D1 thought it a marvelous idea to cut off the paci just a week before we made the 3 day move to the South. Guess who d2 rode with on this 1,000 mile journey? Let's just say he wasn't riding shot gun in the U-Haul with Daddy.

All this to say - round one goes to the littlest D. We'll let him think he's in control. For now.