A Great Gift

8 has been climbing out of his crib. He is quite nonchalant about it most of the time. He’ll saunter out of his room in the morning, look around and say hi. When things don’t go smoothly is when there is a problem. He has fallen rather dramatically twice now. Twice was enough for us to decide to do away with the tall crib rail. Over the long spring break weekend we converted the crib to a toddler bed.

The next two nights my loving and supportive husband was gone. He will tell you it wasn’t on purpose. I’m sure it wasn’t, work is work after all. Maybe, I declared it an excuse to get away from children who wont sleep.

The third night he had had enough of my ribbing and promised he was going to be home. I clung to that. So when he was fifteen minutes late and still no word from him I went ahead and fed the children. I was starting to get a little grouchy. In the scheme of things it wasn’t that late but I was tired and sore and not in the mood to be reasonable.

When he came in the door, not even half an hour late I made a great attempt to be civil. The children had scarfed down what food they were going to eat and I was ready to start the battle to get them into bed. They had skipped naps and had entered that crazed, overly tired stage. But I sat down with my hard working husband, tired too from a couple of late nights at work and we talked as he ate ignoring the rotten children and what ever they may have been destroying upstairs.

After eating he went up and ran a bath, scented with lavender, and insisted I soak and relax. I protested but my will to resist was weak. He then prepared both children for bed and fought them into their beds and to sleep. All while I relaxed in a hot bath. What a man.