Sunday, October 1, 2017

While My Little Boy Sleeps


Kindergarten has been hard on our 5-year-old. While he had generally gotten out of the habit of naps at his preschool, he still had to occupy himself quietly for two hours while the little kids slept at the birth - pre-K home-based daycare he attended, so the amount of activity they throw at kindergartners all day long has caught up to him every single weekend.

Naptime ended fifteen minutes ago, but he’s still sound asleep. I knew this would be the case when he collapsed on the way home from a trip to the park after lunch (thank goodness for jump seat strollers). Actually I knew it on the way home from church when he had a meltdown while arguing with his sister about whether King Xerxes was a good guy or a bad guy in the story of Esther.

He’s been so tired lately that he’s back to wanting to snuggle like he did when he was a baby. Usually he’s such a whirling blur of activity, there’s not time for much more than a ferocious, but quick, hug before he’s off to the next thing.

Today, however, he was so upset and cranky at naptime, that he wanted me to cuddle with him until he fell asleep, and I actually did it. Normally, there would be no chance of agreeing to this request. We learned early in his toddler years that “stay until I fall sleep” was code for “I’d rather play with you than sleep”, but today, it was clear that he was just too upset to stop crying quickly without someone to hold him.

He’s not the consummate snuggler his sister is, but he’s still a very physically affectionate little kid. When he starts getting squirrely, a hug, or ruffle of the hair, or something else that involves touching always seems to ground him almost as well as running laps around our circular driveway.

Some day he won’t have time for this. He already brushes off my affection sometimes when his friends are around, and I’m sure that will only continue as he grows. So I guess this is one of those moments that I need to soak up for all it’s worth because one day he won’t even be kind of little, he’ll be a grown man, and definitely won’t need cuddles from Mom in order to fall asleep.

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