My Sunbeam Is Also A Moonbeam

Brittan is a little sunbeam. More often than not, he walks around with a ready smile for anyone who wants to accept it. He greets me every morning with a smile and 'mowning (morning) Mommy' as he runs into my arms for snuggle time. I LOVE this! He was dubbed early on, from my family, as 'Smiley Riley', his middle name is Riley. Like any sunshine, a cloud can hide that smile faster than anything, but it soon returns with a little 'help' from his Mother. I enjoy his happy disposition and ready smile, but not at 2:00 a.m.!

It has become his little habit, the past two weeks, to come into our room long after everyone else is asleep, including Mommy, stand beside my side of the bed and whisper "mowning Mommy" or with a little tap on my nose, "Hi, Mommy, Baby up." Although it sounds adorable and in truth, is adorable, I am struggling to find the 'adorableness' at those wee hours of the morning. The first time it happened, I put him in bed with us and we went back to sleep. I thought that perhaps he had gotten scared and needed comfort. Wrong!! It happenend again and again. I had Brook move his crib mattress to the bottom rung, but to no avail, he still climbs out. I told him Mommy was going to spank, still no response. I have no problem putting him in our bed, but what happens is, by the time he is finished snuggling up with Mommy and fast asleep, I am wide awake with a little foot in my side or a little body side ways in the bed. I am afraid to move him because he will awaken, but I can't sleep because there is no comfortable position to be found!

Last night it was no different. At 3:00 a.m., I heard little feet coming thru the kitchen and into our room. I met him at the door, picked him up and promptly took him back to his bed with a sippy cup of milk. I laid him down, told him to stay in his bed and go to sleep and went back to bed. I thought that I heard a noise about five minutes later, but as I laid there and listened, all was quiet. Five minutes later, another noise and then nothing. After about a half hour of this, I got up looked all around and found nothing, so I went back to bed. Thirty minutes later and just as I am dosing off, here he is standing there saying, "Hi, Mommy" with a huge grin, he had been hiding on the couch, tyring to get up the courage to come into our room. By now it is 4:30-4:45 and I am exhausted, so I picked him up and put him in our bed, he fell right to sleep. That was the end of my night, I was so wide awake after all the ups and downs, I couldn't go back to sleep. And now, as I am sitting here trying to keep my eyes pried open, my darling little sunshine is sleeping away. Funny how that works.

It won't be long now and I will hear little feet shuffling their way down the hall. I'll see my curly headed little boy with his blankie & pacifier in tow, walk into the family room saying, 'mowning, Mommy', he'll give me that HUGE smile and somehow the fact that I didn't get much sleep at all last night will be forgotten! He brings lots of sunshine into our home and I am thankful for him, smiles in the middle of the night and all!