This Morning

Sometimes - not very often - Aidan wakes up crying and screaming. But when we go in to comfort him, he is still mostly out of it and goes right back to sleep after we rub his back or head a few times, offer words of comfort, and drape his blanket around him again. It seems an unspoken rule that Jayze usually gets up to comfort Aidan since I usually get up with Kimball. So, when Aidan woke up screaming around 4:00, this morning, I thought things would turn out the way they normally do.

I rolled over and woke up Jayze, "Aidan's screaming really hard. I don't know what's wrong." Jayze took a minute to rouse himself and then groggily got out of bed to comfort Aidan. By that time Kimball needed comforting too. Jayze went in their room, consoled both of them, and came back to bed. A few minutes later, Kimball started crying again, so it was my turn to groggily get up, grab a bottle, and feed Kimball.

As I was feeding Kimball, Aidan kept sitting up in bed, laying back in bed, giggling off and on, whining off and on, and dozing. I kept telling him to, "Shhhh, go to bed. It's still bedtime." By the time Kimball was done eating, Aidan had finally relaxed into a comfortable position and had quieted down. As I kissed his forehead and said goodbye, I thought for sure he was going to go back to sleep.

No more than a couple minutes after I had crawled back into bed, I heard Aidan open his door, then I heard his little hand turn the doorknob and and our bedroom door swung open. Most of the time he goes to Jayze's side of the bed because it's closer to the door, but this time he quietly padded over to my side.

I whispered, "Hi, Aidan."
He said, "Up?"
I asked him, "Do you want to come sleep with us?"
He thought for a moment, smiled, and then said, "Eus!" (Yes)

I told him to climb on up. He started to, and then I grabbed him under his arms and pulled him the rest of the way up. Jayze said, "But you have to sleep," because whenever he wants to come into bed with us, it's to play.

I laid him down next to me, covered him with the blanket, told him to go to sleep, and then I dozed off. He took a little bit to actually fall asleep, but when I half woke up awhile later, I could hear his little snore. There we were: Jayze, me squashed in the middle, and Aidan.

My non-snuggler didn't want me too far. Every time I tried to move, he would come closer. His head knocked against mine and then stayed there, and his foot wedged between my knees.

It was the cutest thing.

Later, Jayze got up to get ready for work, and I stayed in bed for another half hour to snuggle with my toddler. Right before I got up, Aidan shifted and put his hand on my arm. Of course I had to stay there at least another five minutes. :) It wasn't until I heard Kimball crying in the other room that I finally climbed out of bed and softly shut the bedroom door, leaving Aidan to snooze away.

He slept for another hour and came out of the room somewhat confused, but super happy. And even though I hope this doesn't become a habit, this morning it was the best thing ever.