Groan. Quick glance at the clock. 6:02 .He has just been fed and should be going back to sleep like he does most every other morning. But he isn't. We gambled last night by staying up a little later so we could finally spend a little alone time together, and now we are being burned for it. No one ever said life was fair... Neither one of us is in the mood to officially get up and out of bed just yet so we decide to bend the rules a bit this morning by bringing him into our bed.
Not surprisingly, once sandwiched between us, he doesn't doze off instantly (he only sleeps in his crib now). He is too curious about his new surroundings – especially Daddy's hair, lips and cheeks. Gouging daddy's eyes is a particularly amusing activity, too. There is much staring at one another, like two people staring at the board wondering what their opponent's next move will be. His eyes are beautiful; they are oceans; mesmerizing; whirlpools I drown in over and over again. Yet, they hold no secrets as to what is going through that tiny, ever-growing seed of a brain. Poor Flea is jealous. Back in Taiwan, it used to be her that would be beckoned up on the bed to cuddle with us. Michele motions for her to come to the side of the bed, which Flea, the opportunist, interprets as an invitation to join the party on the bed. Ca y'est! The whole family is in bed. Fun, yes, but it won't satisfy that desire to sleep...
His schedule throughout the enire morning remains out of sync. He is uncharacteristically fussy and out of sorts. His teeth must really be bothering him. Great, only one more year of teething. It takes him 40 minutes of grappling with his bedmate, Curious George, interspersed with a few attempts at escaping, before he finally collapses from sheer exhaustion.
Our baby boy's day winds down after dinner with a daily bath. I think the purpose of the bath is to calm Kael down before sleep. That is not happening anymore. While he used to be content to lounge back, full stretch, sucking on a bath toy (all that was missing was some candles and a glass of wine) while papa held his head and momma wiped in all his nooks and crannies, he now uses bathtime as his aquafit session. Gone is the relaxed personna, having now been replaced by a much more animated K man who would rather march in the tub rather than lie down. Washing his hair, as you can imagine, becomes a challenging task to say the least. And the fact that he is getting stronger doesn't help matters either. There are times when I forcefully try to coax him to sit, but he just won't budge. I foresee trouble in the future...
After the bath, Kael is dried off and has his pj's put on, afterwhich he has a little feed. It is just about 8 pm. We perform the last leg of our nightly ritual - one which I have grown to adore - by forming a circle and singing him a gentle lullaby. Then we set him down in his crib, give him his blanky, tell him we love him and leave him to fall asleep on his own. After some talking and flailing - the duration varying by day – he finally lies peacefully in his world of vivid dreams. It's a sight beautiful enough to make this grown man cry.
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