Gametes In Love

I read about this place years ago in an airplane magazine. I’d been gearing to go since. But you know how things go: life gets in the way, and then I was pregnant, and then with a baby and all that… so being on a couple hour jeep tour wasn’t really going to happen. While S was transitioning between jobs we made a plan to go. We took G out of school for the day (Yeah, sorry S2, buddy! You’re not patient enough for this ride) and went up to Sonoma. It was fun! It was educational. G asked questions of his own. I was pretty darn impressed!

G and S2 each got a little chickie-egg looking thing for Easter from Ms. A’s parents. They wind up and waddle… or at least they used to. S2’s is long lost, but G came across his earlier this week. The winding mechanism had been over-turned and it was just stuck, not going anywhere. He asked me to fix it. Not wanting to dissect it, I told him, it was no going back and it was broken. The end.

Today it works. Why? G fixed it! How? He threw it against a wall. Yep — the solution to fixing it was I guess identical to breaking it.

We’ve urged him not to “fix” his other toys similarly.

I also urge you to not encourage him to “fix” any of your broken stuff either 🙂

Can it be? Two nights in a row G has fallen asleep on his own. “On his own” meaning, one of us was not in the room with him as he did.

The approach I started last week went something like this:

1. Read a book
2. Tell him I need to go get my jammies on and that I would be back in 5 mins.
3. He can read to himself in his room, but NOT leave his bed
4. Be back in 5 mins and cuddle until he fell asleep

Progressively those 5 minutes became 15. Luckily for me, he falls asleep fast, so for the last two nights within 15 min he’s out.

At first he wanted his main overhead light on, but these last couple of nights, he was content with ALL the nightlights in his room being on and his radio on (thanx, local Jazz radio station!).

We promised him a Bruder dump truck if he fell asleep on his on for 5 nights. We made that promise eons ago, and the kid still remembers! At this rate, we’ll be buying a truck by the end of the week-end, and I couldn’t be happier.

It’s liberating not to be jailed in a kid room until sleep comes!!! It’s also considerably more productive: too many nights those twin beds have sucked all energy out of me, and I have fallen asleep before my assigned child. I wake up only, to waddle myself back to my room, leaving all “todo” tasks for another day.

Aaaah! Please let this be for real!