The best cure

Babess was procrastinating about going to bed this evening.  We’d had drinks of water, trips to the loo, “quiet” playing in her bedroom until she was busted, and now she tried a new tactic.

“Mummyyyyy….  I’m  very sad.  I’m sad because I have a very sore ear, and a very sore head, and very sore arms, and very sore legs, and a very sore back, and my feet are very sore, and my throat is very sore and my finger is sore too.”

“Oh dear Babess, that’s terrible!  You’d better go straight to bed!”

Time for a new strategy, my dear – that one backfired.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

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Sleepover

Babess and Fainjin share a bedroom.  Recently, Fainjin has decided that he is more comfortable sleeping on the floor next to his bed than on the mattress.  Last night he invited Babess to a “sleepover” on his bed instead of her own.  She was so excited!  She moved her quilt from her bed to his, and stacked up a little pile of books – she “needs” 6 or 8 books in bed with her every night.

They chattered away much later than normal, but eventually Fainjin dropped off to sleep and Babess was left talking to herself, which she did happily for a while longer.

They had so much fun that tonight they’re doing it again.  It’s possibly the easiest sleepover I could ever hope to host.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

A sort-of sleep-in

Fainjin has been the first one awake for the past few mornings.  He bounces out of bed and runs in to see us, banging doors as he goes.  As it’s a long holiday weekend, we haven’t been quite as keen to get up as he is.

This morning he came in – already dressed – and, seeing us clearly still mostly-asleep, snuggled in next to me.  But he could see my alarm clock.

“It’s seven fifty-six!” he announced.

“No it’s not,” I groaned (it might have come out more like “Nhhhnnnnn”.)  (Yes, we are exceptionally lucky; our children do sleep past seven in the mornings).

“Now it’s seven fifty-seven!”

I wasn’t facing the clock.  I still didn’t believe him.  “Is it really a five?  Does it look like an S for snake, or the other way ’round?”

“The other way round,” he confirmed.  So it was 7:27, not 7:57.  Not that I really cared all that much.

“Now it’s 7:28!” he said, and thirty seconds later “It’s still 7:28…   now it’s 7:29!”

I dozed off and dreamed I was sleeping next to the Speaking Clock. Only it had icy-cold feet and wriggled and kept asking for breakfast in between telling me the time every minute…

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Positive visualisation

Babess woke up crying at 2:30am one morning recently.  I went to comfort her, and she was very upset.  She had dreamt about hyenas chasing her (too much Lion King, methinks), and they were “vewy vewy scawy”.  I put her into bed next to The Dad while I re-made her bed – she’s a wriggly sleeper.  She chatted to him about her “scawy” dreams, and revealed there was another one which had involved camels.

Not wanting Little Miss Wriggly to take over our bed for the rest of the night, I suggested she go back to her own bed and “try to have happy dreams now”.

“Yes!” she agreed.  “I will dream about Tinkerbell now.”

So off to bed she went, quite happily.

Next morning I had forgotten her plan, but the first thing she told me when she woke up was, “Mummy!  Tinkerbell did bring me a present!”

That’s quite a neat trick, pre-selecting your dreams.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Not tired, no really I’m not

Fainjin had a friend come over to play today.  While they discussed dinosaurs and Lego and fire-engines, we sat in the kitchen with his friend’s Mum and enjoyed a leisurely chat over a cuppa.

Babess appeared – in her pink fairy dress, of course – and climbed up into my lap.  She snuggled right in, and started sucking her thumb.

“Are you a bit tired?” I asked, and she murmured “Mmmmm” before realising it was a trick question and shaking her head.

“Are you sure?  You might need a nap…”  This suggestion was met with a more vigorous head-shake, and she snuggled harder against me, pulling her arm into her sleeve (something she always does when tired).

I let her snuggle, and kept chatting.  Within five minutes The Dad raised his eyebrows at me and nodded towards Babess.  She was fast asleep.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Conversations at 1:30am

“Muuuummmmmeeeeeee!  Muuuummmmmeeeeee!”

There’s a certain sort of urgency that gets me out of bed at 1:30am.  Sometimes the little ones call out and I can tell (through my own sleep-fuddled fog) that they’re calling out in their sleep, or are nearly back to sleep themselves.  But sometimes there’s a note in their voices that gets me up and to their sides before I’ve even really realised I’ve heard anything.

This morning, Babess was calling me, but Fainjin was the one sobbing.  I went to him first.

“What’s the matter?”

“Daddy gave me the wrong food!” he was heartbroken.  Fearing a sore tummy and possibly a stomach bug, I asked, “When?  What food?”

“At lunch!” he wailed.  Whew, more than 12 hours ago, probably not a sore tummy then.  “What wrong food?” I was confused.

“I didn’t want milk on my cake!” more sobs. Since we didn’t have cake, with or without milk on it, I rub his back and tell him it’s a dream.  Some cuddles later, he settles back down.

Meanwhile, I’ve been talking across the room to Babess, who is sitting up wide-eyed.  She is worried about the monsters.  No monsters, I tell her, they’re not allowed in our house and certainly not to scare our children.  Did I growl at them, she wants to know.  Yes of course I did, because Mummies are good at scaring off monsters, and now they won’t dare come near.

“Has the moon gone down?” she asks next.  I don’t know whether the moon going down is a good thing or a bad thing, so I hazard a guess and speak confidently.  “Yes, all gone now.”  Turns out that’s a good thing, she’s worried about the “moon monster”, but if it’s gone then all will be well.  I don’t know where she’s got the idea of a moon monster from, or why she’s suddenly scared of monsters in the middle of the night.  More cuddles for her, her eyes are still wide and fearful but she lies down and snuggles her Piglet.

They both ask me to leave the light on, and Babess makes sure I’ll leave her cot side down (which we do anyway), because “otherwise I’ll be trapped”.  Since she can’t climb out even with the side down, I’m not sure what she means, but as long as she’s happy I’m not going to argue the point.

I stumble back to bed, tell the half-awake Dad what a brute he is for putting milk on Fainjin’s cake (he might as well be as confused as I am!), and drop back off to sleep amazingly quickly.

© UpsideBackwards 2012.

Babess’ dream

Babess dreamed a lot last night, apparently.

“I dreamed and dreamed and dreamed!  And then I cried,” she told us.  Her dream was about a fairy.

“She camed in my window, and she went up and up and up!  She went up to my roof.  And she did dream about me! … And then she cried.”

A recursive, rather sad dream…

© UpsideBackwards 2011.

The sweetest words I’ve ever heard

We had been out extremely late at a family party, just Pearl, The Dad and me.  Our lovely babysitter had stayed with Fainjin and Babess, making sure they got fed and into bed on time.

So next morning, I had had not nearly enough sleep when Fainjin arrived fully dressed at my side and started telling me what he was building with his Lego.  Since it was a perfectly decent hour for most people on a Sunday morning, I couldn’t tell him to go back to bed.  Then again, I wasn’t capable of telling him much to be perfectly honest.  Incoherent murmurs were about all I could manage.  It didn’t seem to bother him, in his enthusiasm.  He was certainly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

Then I heard possibly the sweetest words ever spoken on a Sunday morning.

“Fainjin!  Come talk to Pearl! ‘Cos Mummy and Daddy still need to sleep.”

I owe her one.

© UpsideBackwards 2011.

I promise you, it does

Fainjin is getting really good at staying in bed, or at least his room, until “the first number is 6” these days – in fact, we often have to wake him up on weekday mornings!

Weekends, however, there’s no need to wake him up.  He bounces out of bed and cheerfully comes to tell us “it’s daytime!”.  He’s often even fully dressed by 6:03am.

Next weekend the clocks go forward, so I suppose it won’t really matter for a while, but I’ve been trying to convince him that at the weekends he should stay in bed until 7am.  It’s worth a try!

So this morning when he appeared – fully dressed and asking for breakfast – just after 6, I reminded him blearily that at weekends he should wait until “the first number is 7”.

He regarded me very dubiously, and said uncertainly, “I don’t think my clock goes up to 7…”

© UpsideBackwards 2011.

Pasta for breakfast

Because Pearl and I ate out last night, and were late home, Fainjin was asleep by the time we got in.

This morning, just after 6 (the clock in his room really seems to be having the desired effect!) he appeared in our room.  He blinked when he saw me, perhaps surprised that I had come home while he was asleep.

“Mum!”

“Good morning Fainjin.”

He looked at me carefully.  “You’re hungry.”

“Huh? Oh! No, sweetie, I had dinner out.”

“No, you missed dinner.  There’s pasta. We kept you some!”  He looked like he was about to go and fetch it for me, but I persuaded him I could get it (or something else!) when I got up.

What a sweetheart.

© UpsideBackwards 2011.