I always check on my sleeping kids before I go to sleep myself. When Ian was a baby I did it because I missed him and also because I was sure he would suffocate if I didn't go in there and readjust his blankets. Now I do it because I love seeing their peaceful, sleeping faces after I have had a few hours' break from my motherhood duties. The stress of our day together has usually drained away by then, and it makes me look forward to waking up the next day and doing it all over again.
I don't usually disturb them when I fix their blankets and turn off the ceiling fan, or so I thought. Joseph often mutters a few words (usually about Ian) and Ian will sometimes open his eyes for a split second. A few months ago I arrived home late at night and decided that I would go straight to bed and skip tucking them in, thinking it wouldn't matter anyway. The next morning Ian wanted to know why I didn't come say goodnight!
For posterity's sake, here are some details about their current sleep habits:
Ian goes to bed at 7 pm and usually sneaks out to prop the door open with his favorite blanket sometime thereafter. Lately he started coming out to ask for a drink/ go to the bathroom/ ask an "important" question (that he often can't even remember). But he knows that if he does it repeatedly we will lock his door (from the outside) until morning. Which he hates. So usually it doesn't have to come to that.
He knows he can't come out of his room in the morning until the digital clock on his nightstand says 7:00 am. Without fail, he bounds into our room at exactly that time, and is cheery and enthused about the day ahead. Once we set his clock 30 minutes behind to garner a few more minutes of sleep each day -- it was glorious for an entire week, until he noticed the clocks weren't synced and he started coming in when his clock said "6:30 am".
Helen often wants to eat at 6:30 am, and when I walk past his room I often notice him laying in bed or on the floor, propped up on one arm, with the clock held in the other hand, waiting for 7 am.
The bunnies usually sleep with him still, but some nights he doesn't even ask for them.
Joseph cannot sleep without his favorite yellow blanket. He won't necessarily ask for it at bedtime and naptime, but without it he'll stay up playing and yelling and singing, and will quickly fall asleep once I bring it in.
He loves sticking his hand through the "soft holes" he made in the middle, and recently the hole became so large that he can wear the whole thing over his head like a poncho.
Every morning he asks first thing "Is it morning time? Where are we going?" He will usually also ask where Daddy is. When Daddy is already gone to work Joseph is pretty sad about it.
I just realized that Joseph thinks that naptime occurs at night -- probably because of his blackout curtains. When he awoke after a really short nap, in a really bad mood, I told him to go back to sleep. He kept asking if it was "morning time" (which he always uses in place of "sleeping time") and I kept saying that it wasn't yet morning time. Finally, he insisted I throw open the curtains and show him the stars. When they weren't there he started asking if Daddy had already left for work. The poor kid was really confused.
Joseph goes to bed at 7 pm (and usually talks until about 7:30 pm) and wakes up around 7:30 am. I don't think he has ever been the first one awake in the family -- it always appears to be the noise our family makes that wakes him up for the day. He doesn't get himself up -- he always waits for someone to come in and get him before he throws a leg over the edge of the crib and climbs out. Most of the time he is "hiding" under his yellow blanket when I come in.
Notice his fingers laced through what looks like Ramen Noodles? His dirty, holey, blanket is really sad-looking.
We put Helen at the top of a wedge in her crib that we bought when Joseph's reflux was really bad. A lot of the time she'll wiggle herself down the wedge and end up perpendicular to where she started, all while remaining fairly tightly swaddled. She's in that position in this picture, sleeping soundly.
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