Ben hit a milestone this morning. He learned he can open his bedroom door. At 4:36 this morning we heard the pitter patter of little Benjamin feet coming down the hall, stuffed duck in hand. He went to Shawn’s side of the bed and greeted us with the traditional “hello, hello, hello”. Shawn lifted him up and snuggled him in between us. Sweet little Ben gave me a kiss, honked my nose and then started playing with my hair. So there we were, one big happy snuggled family. Ethan was making soft cooing sounds in the bassinet beside me, Ben’s little feet were in my back, Shawn was snoring happily beside Ben and Trout was snoring happily beside Shawn. (Sting prefers not to snuggle.) What could be better? It was one of those sweet family moments you want to remember forever.
24 minutes, a few more kicks in the back, an elbow or two to the face, a nose honk that missed and landed in my eye and lots of rolling around later and I was way over co-sleeping. I walked Ben back down to his room, tucked him in bed, shut the door. I had no more than climbed into my own bed, rearranged the covers just right, fluffed the pillow, gave Ethan a pacifier and yep, pitter patter, pitter patter. This time I was not quite so amused. We heard Ben rummaging around the living room. Then a TV remote control was thrust into my face and I heard Ben’s little voice, “Mama, Elmo. Mama Elmo.” I laughed. Shawn put him back in bed.
It didn’t work.
S o we did one more thing we said we would never do. Thanks to some generous friends we have an extra baby gate, it now resides in Ben’s doorway. That’s right we have caged Ben into his own room. We could still hear the sounds of him playing with his stuffed animals, trucks and blocks but at least he was doing it down the hall in his own room. It was 5:27. Ethan decided he was hungry and thus the day started at the Van Dyke house.
I am thanking the Lord for a family to snuggle in the early morning and for nap time.