what have we done?

We looked at each through bleary eyes - I was dodging left hooks and he was deflecting round-house kicks. The sleep deprivation was getting to us and we were both subjected to this beating on our own turf. We were losing, there was no question about it.

"What have we done???", I slurred out while ducking my head.

"I don't know but we have to stop this!", he stammered out and he protected his manhood from a perilously placed knee.

And then the giggles started...small little giggles that erupted into waves of cackling laughter. He was getting the best of our attacker! At last! K-man couldn't assault us in his sleep as long as his "Da" was tickling him! Two nights in our bed was all it took for our two-year old to realize that sleeping between Mama and Da was a pretty darn good thing - at least from his point of view. For us, well yeah it is sweet when your growing baby wants to snuggle in between you, but it's all of the wiggling and tossing and kicking and punching that wears us out. That and the fact that for two night the most he would sleep in his bed was 2 to 3 hours before waking up and screaming like all bloody hell had broken loose. We have determined that we would be bad prisoners of war - no torture for us, thankyouverymuch - just take away a few hours of sleep and we'll sing like a bird if you'll just let us go back to bed.

We really are not sure what started all of this. Perhaps the little guy is going through a phase or maybe he's had some nightmares. We really can't tell one way or the other, but four nights ago we started this whole not-sleeping thing and we naively let him in bed with us just so that we could sleep. Oh man was that wrong! In an attempt to get him out of our bed, Hubster spent three hours the other night converting his crib into a toddler bed. I watched from afar as he worked and sweated through this labor of love....or maybe it was a labor of love of sleep, whatever. I reminded him about what time it was and how late it was getting and that the side bar goes there and wasn't he going to put that up higher. I entertained and distracted our little man with cartoons, milk, waffles, cars, and rockets. I bit my tongue about asking Hubby if was going to sweep up the mess he was making. And finally...finally...it was finished...so I changed the sheet on the mattress because it made me feel better - like I had contributed. And then we let K-man have his first look at his revised bed...and he loved it! On it...off it...on...off...on...off...piled a bunch of books on....threw a bunch of books off...on, off, on, off....craaaaaaap.

The "new" bed went over like a rockstar party - only who wants to sleep at a party? Eventually...eventually...we got him to bed and then we got to bed and we all slept for 5 hours straight. At 5:30 in the morning, we heard "Daaaaaaaaa"....*quiet*....."Maaaaaaaaa". So we put him in bed with us and snoozed a little while before getting ready for work. Last night, there was more coercing to actually stay in the bed he likes so much. This time, we made it for 8 hours straight until at 4:30 this morning I was jerked awake. I have no idea how I knew, but I knew the instant our little guy stepped inside our bedroom doorway. There he stood...all 36 inches of him covered in blue snowman footy pajamas with his hair sticking in all directions and his little hands clasped in front of him - outlined by the small light coming from his room. He was waiting...watching...wondering. I called out to him, "Come on Baby...come get in bed" and he pitter pattered over to my side of the bed and I hoisted him up to snuggle between us. A few minutes later, he leaned over close to my ear...."Maaaaaa"....."Milk?"

*sigh* Who can resist that? The crib is gone. I wish I had taken one more photo of him sleeping in it. But with this change comes those days I knew were ahead of us when he can come into our room on his own in the morning and snuggle. It's always about a give and take...and I'll take every moment that I can.