As we settle into a new normal here at Pink Moss

 *can I call it that anymore? My blog branding is totally messed up now!* 

one of the biggest adjustments with Handsome has been bed time. There are a few reasons it has been an adjustment:

First, he is right at the age where he was beginning to jump out of his crib at his birth mom’s house and risk getting hurt, so I transitioned to a toddler bed (actually a mattress on the floor until I can get one).

Second, he was scared at first sleeping in a new home where he didn’t know anyone. He would wake up crying and shaking the first few nights.  (One night I laid by him and just cried because it was so hard for me to watch.)

Third, he flops around like a gymnast when he sleeps and likes to be right up against something whether it be the wall, or blankets, or myself. He will literally sit up and fall forward while he is still asleep.  I have seen him turn over into the wall and hit his head because he likes to sleep so close to it.

It has been an experience all on it’s own. At first I was worried that if I let him sleep by me it would cause more struggles in the long run, but I realized if he could feel me next to him and see my face every time he was scared, he would feel more comfortable and stable sooner.

Every night I have been at his beck and call. The first five nights I slept with him, and the next four I have fallen asleep by him and then ran to him when he wakes up. He looks at me and smiles his way back into dream world. I can’t believe how quickly he is adapting. He is such a sweet child.

All was going well and then tonight…

Handsome actually laughed when I told him it was time for bed. Not once or twice, but over and over again. 

Laughed!

I think he thought it was a game…and maybe it became one!

I guess I should take this as a good thing

. I need to view it as a sign of comfort. 

Tonight I laid down with him in the dark and put on his favorite CD. Usually he cries for a minute and then dozes off, but tonight he kept smiling and jumping on me. How am I supposed to be serious and firm when he is being so cute?

He started squeezing my nose, and what else is there to do than honk?

It is my duty as a mother to honk when he squeezes my nose.

I laid him down and asked him to shut his eyes. He did as I asked with a huge toothy grin and giggled as he peered though his fingers. Oh man…I am just getting a glimpse at the next years of our life together. He has already figured out that laughs and smiles go a lot further with me than whining or crying. 

*I’m in for it*.

 I am going to have to find a way to be more tough at some point, but for now I am week. I am a sucker for his little developing personality.

One of the things I love about being a mother is getting to know my children. I love to understand what makes them tick. I think it is so fun watching them grow into the adults they will be. They are all so different, and I love it!

Maybe Handsome was still wound up from our first visit to Chucky Cheese! 

Jon made me promise that I wouldn’t take Handsome without him, so I didn’t. I don’t even like the place, but watching Handsome experience it for the first time tonight was hilarious! He and Bug loved the same big moving trucks to ride on. I was actually never able to get him to eat dinner because he was having so much fun. By the end, he was so overstimulated that he couldn’t even sit on a ride for the full length that the token bought. 

I wouldn’t have been able to sleep either!

This was his first face on the rides….

and his second!

Then daddy thought he would teach Handsome how to get 

LOTS 

of tickets

Other than he is choosing to put it in the 0 slot! 

We will have to work on that one…

Next he worked on his shot, lots of hunting ahead you know!

Monkey ripped off that she only won 2 tickets!

And then….Rooz showed up

and gave us hugs

and brought a “friend” named “Scotty Boy”

and some news….

Does it EVER slow down around here? 

Nope!

Stay tuned!