Clark recently went through a rough period, sleep-wise. Instead of shutting his eyes and cuddling up in his dark bedroom the way he always had, he started banging on the wall and randomly getting out of bed and yelling things to me through the door, waking Alice up too.
Our solution?
We now tuck him in with the following items:
large very soft microfiber "happy" blanket
small very soft microfiber "happy" blanket
stuffed dog, "
Puppers"
stuffed singing/talking dog "My Pal Scout"
very bright night light
LeapFrog Text and Learn
stack of
Maisy books
memory foam mattress pad
sheets with a higher thread count than my own
1978 Disney Cassette tape playing "Skip To My Lou"
sippy cup full of ice water
and...
my
iPod Touch
As much as he loves the music and dogs and the ridiculously comfortable soft bed, it's the
iPod that gets him to sleep. He falls asleep playing with
Dress Chica and
ShapeBuilder and painting/drawing apps the same way I fall asleep playing
Moxie. I would worry about sleep hygiene but I'm honestly just happy he falls asleep without getting upset. Besides, he comes by it honestly. My grandma falls asleep playing video Poker.
There have been some unintended consequences of letting him go to bed this way.
1) He deletes things. Emails, tweets, and apps have all disappeared.
2) He updates my
facebook status to say things like, '
axiiaudha;;l".
3) He somehow takes screenshots of the games he is playing and saves them in my photos. There are currently NINETY SIX screenshots saved there.
But the best part? The part I didn't see coming? After he falls asleep, I go to his room and take the
iPod out of his little hand and I get to see what he was doing when he fell asleep. Luke and I look at whatever it is and then look at each other and just shake our heads. There is something so sweet about the half finished portraits and puzzles and dressed-up chickens resting in his little sleeping hand. It's always slightly different and is such a funny little surprise. This moment is, reliably, one of the best ones we have all day.
*I once bought Luke a humorous dogs-wearing-costumes daily calendar and not only did he use it and like it, he would bring home the funniest days to show me at the end of the week. I know you will appreciate this, Smacksy.