Brown Bear and growing up

Oh my, growing up can be cruel sometimes. But growing up is necessary and the little lessons learned along the way are so very important.

 

I've decided it's more than time for Eily to break the habit of bumping. This morning I told her that if I caught her bumping during the day, I was going to take away Brown Bear and put him in a safe place until she could break the habit.

 

 

I caught her.

 

It was awful. There was wailing and crying and gnashing of teeth. Brown Bear is now resting peacefully in the top of my closet and Eily and I had a long talk about how this new way of sleeping will be hard to get used to but she's a big girl now and very strong and will succeed. 

As we left her room, she looked at me and between sniffles and shudders said, "But Mama, this is going to be worser than hard!"

And she's right. It will probably be worser than hard but we will work through it together and it'll all turn out ok.
And when she's a teenager and sleeping over at a friend's house, she'll thank me that she doesn't have to bump to get to sleep.  And if she doesn't thank me, her friend probably will.

And Now I Know

Eily is loving. Eily is talkative. Eily is amusing. Eily is strange.


Eily started sleeping through the night at about six weeks old. It was marvelous. She would rock herself to sleep by, (are you ready for this?), humping. And that's the last time I will use that word in this post. From here on out I will refer to said motion as smiling.

So, anyway, she smiles her self to sleep every night. Really, she does it anytime she needs to feel comforted. If you are holding her and she is tired she will smile against your stomach. If you are sitting on the couch, she will lie on your lap and smile the couch. And she doesn't just smile. She has to have something under her bottom to smile into. Her "something" of choice is Brown Bear. When he was lost a little while back we had try-outs with the various stuffed animals in the house to see which one was the most comfortable to tuck under her bum so that she could smile. So strange. When we stayed all afternoon at church a couple of weeks ago, I made her take a nap. But before she could go to sleep we had to find a pillow or a blanket that could sufficiently replace Brown Bear. If she is in bed and not smiling, we know that she's not going to sleep yet. You have to wait for that smiling motion before you can breathe that parental sigh of relief that comes at night when you know it's ok to sit and put your feet up because they can stay up for more than 3 seconds. 


Every night Eily comes in around 3am and gets in our bed and Jason moves to the couch. We are really tired of this routine and we know all we have to do is put her back in her bed for a night or two and she'll stop but we are both so tired from the lack of sleep that comes from her nightly interruption that we just cooperate with her demands. ANYTHING FOR SLEEP. We are almost to the point that we are so exhausted from the ritual that we will be empowered to stop it. But not yet.  So two nights ago, Eily had hopped in and Jason had stumbled out and I was trying to get her situated so I could just go back to sleep. First she had to locate Brown Bear. Then she had to get the covers just right and finally, after a few drinks (of water), she started smiling. I just watched her for a moment and then I finally just came out and asked her,


"Why in the world do you do that when you go to sleep?"
"You mean why do I bump?"
"Yes. Why do you do that?"
A slight pause and then,

"Because that what Eily's do!"

And now I know.


P.S. Anyone want to trade lives with Brown Bear? No? Didn't think so.