Tuesday, May 6, 2008

The Late, Late Show

Normally getting up at 1:45 a.m. with your child is not a lot of fun. Usually it indicates that there's some mess of bodily fluids (or non-fluids) to pick up. Plus, if MacTroll were home, I probably wouldn't have gone to bed until 11:30 p.m., which makes late night duty much more annoying. But on a night where my head hit the pillow at 9 p.m., I was much more rested for the near 2 a.m. bedtime comforting.

Tonight was the best kind of late night party. I could hear the X-man talking in his bed. Not sleepy babbling, but talking. I got up and went to check on him. He saw me and flew into my arms. I carried him to the diaper changer and exchanged his heavy diaper for a clean one. When we were done, I picked him up. 

As we were walking back to his toddler bed, he protested. He didn't want to go back to bed. We sat on his window bench and cuddled and rocked for 15 minutes. His head resting on my chest on the soft, fluffy fabric of my robe. His hair still smelled of clean, mild shampoo from bath time shenanigans at 7 p.m. 

We said nothing, until I whispered that I loved him, and he reached up and gave me a full on hug, with his little head resting on my shoulder. Then his breathing slowed to a calm sleepiness. I put him in his bed with his blankie. He curled into it and drifted back into sleep.

Sometimes this parenting thing is just so tremendously wonderful, I have to stay up and write a little snippet before I head back to bed. 

2 comments:

Quigs78 said...

More often than not, I curse the late night wakings and wish I could go back to bed. But every once in a while, when we're rocking, I remind myself that this age is going to be gone quickly, and there's going to come a time when a hug from mom isn't going to be enough to comfort whatever is going on in their world. Thanks for putting everything into perspective.

Lavender Lemonade said...

I love that baby shampoo smell in their hair. And those full fledge hugs. We are lucky women to get such special gifts so unknowingly. :) Thanks for reminding me.