Bedtime

Zeke almost never puts up a fight at bedtime -- not exactly, anyhow. What he does manage to do quite successfully is draw things out for a long time. Sometimes he whines, but usually he is subtler -- he squeezes out an engaging or amusing remark just as you think you're going to be able to get him to say good-night. Some of this is just simple manipulativeness, I think, but there's a fair amount of genuine anxiety about being left alone for the night. Tonight, though, he really topped himself. He started out by asking about his friend Billy (last seen on this blog here), who recently moved out of state (with his parents). He wanted to know where Billy was, saying, "I want my friend, I want Billy," and briefly became somewhat distressed, but then comforted himself (rather heartrendingly for the adult in the room) by saying, "When I wake up, my friend will come my house, and I will say, 'Come on in!'"

Then he started the process of talking himself into sleeping. He said: "At night time, the birds stop eating, and eating, and flying around, and they sit in their nests and go to sleep and tuck their heads under their wings, like this" (and he curled his arm around his head). Then -- and this was an absolute killer, I really did lose it for a minute -- he said, "Daddy, do the birds say to their mama and daddy, 'Don't fly away, stay here in the nest'? Is that what they say? Is that what they say? ... Daddy, I don't want you to leave."

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On a lighter note, here are a few photos...