The Sleep Chronicles

This weekend was a little crazy.

As are most weekends.

Between grandma babysitting, Saturday shopping and church the boys' sleep schedule was pretty off.

As it is most weekends.

So, last night when Sam and Luke were having problems going to bed, we weren't surprised. They needed Mom to come give them a hug. They needed to go potty...NOW!.. and NOW!...and NOW! Sam hit Luke with something or other. Luke needs a drink of water. And we do what we do most nights that end up this way...we start taking their stuff away if they continue to come out of their room.

Teddies, blankies...it usually doesn't get farther than that.

At 10:30 last night Sam was laying flat on his mattress with a sheet over him. Awake. I'm not sure we've ever had to take away the comforter and pillow before.

Obviously that tactic was not working last night. And Sam was not going to bed for anything. Luke had given in some time earlier and was asleep until Sam starting yelling "Dad!" as loud as he could over and over. I was feeding Brigg in the other room and, not wanting him to wake up more than necessary, was hoping that Kendall could hear Sam from downstairs before he woke up Luke. No such luck.

So, we had obviously passed our breaking point now. This was ridiculous! Kendall told Sam to get out of the room and sat him on the rocking chair in our room down the hall, calmed Luke back down and then I joined him in our room to talk to Sam. He sat on the rocking chair looking at us as we told him we were very upset with him for disobeying, waking up his brother, coming out of his room, etc. We just went about getting ready for bed while Sam sat on the chair as we were really not sure what to do with him.

Finally, we tell him, "It's too bad you lost your chance to sleep in your nice, cozy bed. Now you're just going to have to sleep in that chair tonight." Hmmm. That sounded good. We kept with it...

"Well, Sam, you better figure out how to get comfortable in that chair. Boys that don't behave, come out of their beds and wake their brothers up don't get to sleep in their nice beds." We had no intent of actually making him sleep in that chair. But it sounded good and we continued on...

We got in our bed after finishing the nightly routine, all the while Sam watching quietly from the rocking chair in the corner. Just before we turned out the lamp, we tell Sam to figure out how to get cozy.

He looks at us for a minute, very serious. We stare back, very serious.

Then, he bends over and puts his face on the seat of the chair. Then he squirms this way and that trying to figure out what to do with his legs. Finally, he begins to stretch his legs out behind him while keeping his face on the seat. The photo shows the end result. Kendall and I hid our face behind the pillow to hide our smiles and muffle our laughs. We were supposed to be upset, after all.

And Sam stayed in that position for a minute or so while Kendall snagged a quick picture on his phone. Then he folded his legs back in, sat up and told us, very seriously (as he rubbed his back), "Ugh. That's a little bit rough on my back."

And Kendall and I just burst out in laughter, no hiding it this time.

And the mood was broken. Kendall lead Sam back to his bed, telling him we decided to give him one more chance to go to bed. We even gave him his pillow and comforter back, though the teddy and blue blankie went in the top of our closet until Sam can earn them back. The clock gleamed at me, 11:12. And Sam finally went to sleep.