Good With the Bad

Tonight I have  this little monkey next to me (and his two cats – Jill and Peanut Butter.)

When Jack was little (since he is so big now, right?) he could never fall asleep in our bed.  On the winter nights when the power was out and we would try to stay warm by sleeping in one bed, or in summer, on the occasional sweltering night when we would cool one room with our window air-conditioner, Jack would be wide awake jumping on the bed.  When we could get him to lie down, he would open his eyes and look at Eric and say “My Daddy!” then turn to look at me and say, “My Mama!”  over and over again.  We needn’t worry about not sleeping because of the temperature, we were not sleeping because of that little monkey!

We used to have to trick Jack by putting him to bed in his own room (freezing – with lots of blankets or sweltering -with a fan) and move him back to our room when he was asleep.  Eric and I would hope-hope-hope he didn’t wake up since there would be no getting him back to sleep again.  It is hard to snuggle with a baby that you are terrified is going to wake up!  On the occasional times that Jack would fall asleep in Eric’s or my arms, we always felt it was something special.

Tonight I “tricked” Jack again.  We spent the day with my nieces Sarah and Lauren and they are spending the night too.  Lauren in the spare room, and Sarah in Jack’s room.  So I put Jack to bed in his bed, and moved him when Sarah was ready to go to bed too. 

The sad news is, the reason there is some spare room next to me is that Eric is out of town for the week.  It seems like AGES since I have seen Eric!  I really miss him, and wish the days would fly by so that I could see him again – on Friday.  I would gladly change out this monkey for my husband.  But that is not an option for me, so I will enjoy Jack being close-by and put up with the fact that Eric is too far away.