Peace

TheFry has gone to bed before midnight for - wait for it - five days in a row. This is a major accomplishment, given that for the last month or two he's been staying up until nearly 2:00am and basically driving both myself and PapaFish insane.

There are two possibilities to this conclusion:

1. The last five days were vacation for me (Happy Chuseok, everyone!). I have been home almost non-stop, and he has certainly enjoyed all the cuddling and walking around together that we've been doing.

2. I've tried my darndest to have him fall into a bedtime routine. This was rather sporadic beforehand, given that I came home from work at different times, and also that PapaFish occasionally tried to put TheFry down early so he would be asleep when I got home. However, TheFry would always just use that extra snooze as a nap and get up around 11pm and decide to hang out with us for a couple of hours until we were so exhausted that we would just go to bed and let him crawl around until he fell asleep on his own (which he tends to do on occasion).

I hope it's the routine. I really, really hope it's the routine.

TheFry gives a few telltale signs that he's tired enough for sleep: he grabs his blanket and pacifier and spends some cuddle time on his bed watching TV with his feet wiggling around in the air, repeatedly hugging the blanket and rolling his eyes back. He pushes them back open with such a strong will to not sleep that it's almost aggravating, if it weren't so cute. Also, he can get very clingy and refused to be separated from PapaFish or myself by even a couple of feet. One thing that unfortunately happens quite often is that TheFry will be hyper as usual (or even a little moreso) and then start having really random clumsy moments. Usually the spills are not bad at all - but when he falls on his face from a crawl and starts screaming as if he's going to die, we know he's ready for bed, without a doubt!

That's when I scoop him up, toss the blankie and a book on the bed, change the diaper, bathe, lotion, and dress him in clean pajamas, and then we sit down to read a book! Lately he's had such a huge interest in books that it blows my mind. He loves them, to look at the pictures, to smile with his two-tooth grin the whole time, and to try and help me turn the pages (or close the book before the story is over). Then we might give him a cup of milk if he hasn't had one, or we might just go without and brush his [two] teeth either way. He loves his little toothbrush with duckies on it, but usually he just tries to chew on the non-brush end. Anyway, it's the exposure that counts! Mainly, I think he enjoys the bonding and social time that toothbrushing involves.

Afterwards, I fight him for a grand total of 5~10 minutes before he's out like a lamp. It usually includes 2 rounds of "Barges", "Jesus Loves Me," "Jesus Loves the Little Children", the "ABCs", "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", followed by 3 rounds of "Edelweiss" to get him to ease into sleep. The fighting has been getting less and less, so I really hope the routine will stick.

Interestingly enough, "Edelweiss" is the only song that really gets him to fall asleep - the others are just warm-ups that get his attention, perhaps soothing him until "Edelweiss" is the final push over the edge. Or maybe it's just the fact that it's the only song I sing to him in 6:8 time.

I'm anxious about tomorrow, but I'll definitely be more consistent about what time I come home so that this routine can have full effectiveness. Previously, only PapaFish had success with putting TheFry to bed but now I think I might have provided a comfortable alternative.