Such a Sleepy Baby!

Okay, I know he’s not a baby anymore, but my youngest is still THE baby.  No matter what, all my boys will always be MY babies.  I think most parents will understand.

The youngest has always been a squirmy sleeper.  He’s nearly ten, and we still check on him before we go to bed.  It is not uncommon to find him on top of his blankets, turned upside down on the bed, sweltering under too many stuffed animals (his favorite is his giant tiger), or completely missing from the bed altogether.

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Often our biggest clue that he has wandered to a different sleeping place is the open bedroom door.  I will usually be the one to shut off the lights after tucking him in, and will leave the door only slightly ajar.  Sometimes when he decides to hide, he will leave the door wide open to his room.  Then the search begins!

He hasn’t gone far.  He just likes to change things up a bit.  Sometimes we’ll find him in the bed in the guest room.  A couple of times this last week he wound up in our bed.  We have a walk-in linen closet which becomes a cozy little nest.  He has decided to make a little bed on his floor, too.

Most of the time when he’s just turned about in the bed, I think he was just playing after the lights were out and fell asleep where he was.  The times he leaves his bed to find a new resting place, I honestly think he believes he’ll be able to stay awake to get a little laugh listening to us try to find him.  He never makes it, though.

He actually gave me a scare one time because he hid behind his bed and I didn’t realize he was there.  We searched the house up and down before we discovered his hiding place!  When he was smaller, we would pick him up from wherever he went and put him back into his own bed.  That’s getting much harder to do.  Most of the time now we just let him stay, unless he’s in our bed.  He’s too squirmy!!

Someday he may just decide to stay put and stay tucked in.  His nightly escapades are already fewer and farther between.  For now we get a little chuckle from his goofiness, but I think I’ll be a little sad when he stops trying to sneak out of his bed.