Susan, G and I ran some errands today and grabbed some lunch a the 99. It was a pretty mundane day, really, but I was glad we were able to really get some time together as a family. We’ve been so rushed with everything when we’ve been together, and it seems like our whole lives revolve around G’s routine these days. That’s no complaint; just an observation.
Well, sometimes we kind of “forget” he has a routine. Maybe it’s because we’re selfish enough to want a day out of the house with him. That means we bring enough bottles and diapers to last him while we go out and about and we hope the moving car will lull him into a nap. Today was not one of those days.
At nearly 12 weeks, G is starting to really take in his surroundings. I even see him get momentarily mesmerized by the television while we’re feeding him. That’s not something either of us are in favor of right now. We’d rather wait before letting him get entranced by the idiot box, as my grandfather used to call it. Beside that, he is always looking around, turning his head left and right looking for stimulation. It’s really quite cool, except when we know he needs a nap. G has discovered that he can entertain himself enough to avoid sleeping during the day. This can be a good thing in helping him to sleep through the night, but it also makes him very cranky until bed time.
Today he slept on the ride to my grandmother’s house, where we went to pretend to fix a doorknob. I say pretend because the doorknob didn’t fit right, and I didn’t have the tools with me to get it to fit. He woke while I was fiddling with the door and didn’t sleep a wink for hours afterwards. It was really kind of nerve-wracking. At one point, after lunch we were driving back towards the house with still a few more errands to accomplish. I looked back to see if I could glimpse a happy G in the mirror that faces him. Susan warned me not to make eye contact with him. “What is he a demon spawn?” I wondered to myself. (I have wondered that in the past, usually when I’m changing a poopy diaper!)
“Do not look directly at the son!” I said to Susan.
Susan told me that G will fall asleep if we ignore him. If either of us makes eye contact through the reflection in his mirror he will think it’s playtime are we’re done for. It didn’t matter anyway because he never did fall asleep. We curtailed our errands and sped home. I swaddled him and put him to sleep, and we’ve had almost two hours of peace and quiet since. It’s the first two-hour stretch we’ve had all day, and even since midnight last night!
I look at him and I love him so much, but I long for the days when he sleeps through the night.
Peaks and Lavallees 