Being mama to a four-year-old comes with your basic tempter tantrums, learning of letters and numbers, eskimo kisses, and the occasional embarrassing stories they like to tell total strangers. It also comes with new fears, new routines, and new habits. He is learning his numbers, letters, colors and more at preschool. He loves to hang out in his undies, drink strawberry milk, and dance around with his brother. This boy is my first-born, my heart and soul.
At the end of the day, I am known to lose my patience. Let’s face it, it’s true. Evening comes and I’m sure like many of you, we deal with the witching hour. It’s not quite bedtime yet everyone is tired. As much as my busy and exhausted body fights it, I get frustrated. Slowly but surely the boys get tucked into bed… sippy cups, songs, prayer, and kisses. When the time comes for me to hit the hay I do the usual… lock up the house, shut down computer, brush teeth, etc. I climb into our cozy king-sized bed. Then as I have done for the last year, I grab the extra pillow and stick it in the middle. It lays there cold and empty, just waiting… for him.
You see, my darling boy that slept through the night at 8 weeks now comes into our room. every. single. evening. He started this after baby brother was born, we knew there was transition. Then he started to get really scared at night, we cut out all questionable cartoons. Pretty soon said transition and fears were history – yet night after night he snuck into our room. The hubs and I had the chat about this on many occasion and we heard ‘the experts’ tell us what a horrible habit it was.
You know what though? I sort of don’t mind, shhh!
I guarantee that although it will be a nice change when he stops, it will certainly be bittersweet. So for now I’m happy to leave the pillow in the middle, because really, he is only four for so long.
