A sucker evening

Okay, so things are settling down into normalcy. No more vacations or hospital stays are in our near future. So what is there to blog about? How about my evening with Mr Mischief himself, Max?

We had essentially weened Max off a pacifier prior to our trip to DC in April. But then as we were thinking about the flight, I got a little concerned that he may have ear pressure trouble in the airplane. So we decided it would be good to have the pacifier along for him to use. And it worked out really well. Problem--we didn't do an effective job cutting him off again upon our return and we really have become dependent upon the pacifier to, well uhm, pacify him when we need him to calm down. He used those bad boys a lot last week on vacation. I think we have three around somewhere. The key word in that last statement is somewhere.

This evening, Cate was a really good girl and so I let her stay up to watch a movie. Max hardly took a nap and was uber cranky. So I get him ready for bed and I'm looking in the usual places for his "sucker" as my guarantee for a quick trip to dreamland and I can't find one anywhere. So Max was not happy at all when I put him in his bed without his big sister and without his sucker. I can't tell you the number of times he has come out of the room and I have had to haul him back in. In between each coming and going, I would search around the house for one of the suckers. No luck whatsoever and these are good days where the house is perfectly tidy. Crap! I even went so far as calling Kyle during his guy's night out to see if he knew where any of the suckers might be. Fortunately for Kyle, it went to voicemail.

I got so frustrated with him constantly coming out that it took me a while to get smart--it finally occurred to me to put Max in the top bunk. Boy, was he stinking mad! He's still really apprehensive to get down on his own. So he bawled and bawled, but he has stayed up there and it's quiet now. I just hope he isn't in there pulling out all of the kleenex from Cate's kleenex box!

"Sucker, please!"

We consider ourselves very fortunate to have kids that go to bed really well. However, the other night was a bit rough for Max.

We are trying to ween Max off his pacifier and I put him into bed without his "sucker" despite him asking so sweetly, "sucker, please! sucker, please!" After I left the room, he bawled. And bawled. Eventually, he got out of bed and laid down at the foot of the door and bawled even louder repeating, "sucker, please!" These three photos to the right show just how sad he was...

Poor guy. Don't worry, dear reader, I have my moments of compassion. Generally, I let my kids cry themselves to sleep. I feel it's good for them to be able to console themselves. They're alright, they're not hurt or in any danger. But this particular evening, Max sounded so sad and the sight of his little hand under the door was so cute, it made my hard heart melt just a little bit. I eventually went in and got him back into bed. And he very quickly fell asleep--without his "sucker".





I'm so proud of Max. He's such a good boy!