We're willing to try anything to get Henry to go to sleep.
We heard about sewing a nuk inside a stuffed animal. That way, the child still feels close to his nukie and has a new lovey to make him feel safe. So we found an extra nuk around the house (actually, Henry found it on top of a very tall dresser- it's like he has a sixth sense for nuks). Then Henry picked out a stuffed animal- a truck, of course.
Then we opened it up and bid the last nukie farewell. Henry was excited about feeling for his m nuk inside the truck for about 2 seconds. Now he tolerates having the truck in bed with him, but it certainly isn't a comfort.
We're mostly past sobbing inconsolibly every time Henry goes to bed and have just moved on to getting up about 15 times before finally settling down and going to sleep. It's driving mama crazy because she has missed most of her shows from running Henry back up to bed. He never comes down during commercials.
We've also tried bribery in the form of candy, matchbox cars, and the promise of visits with his friends, but to no avail. Our latest strategy is the old exhaustion method. We got him up at 6 am this morning and are hoping he'll just bo too tired to fight. But in our experience, the more tired Henry gets, the more energetic he is.
Despite our frustrations over bedtime, we still find Henry mildly amusing from time to time. Here's a few funny things he's said this week. To mama's displeasure, he has become very aware of what other people call their parents. When talking about other kids, he is very careful to refer to their parents as "mommy" and "daddy." He also thinks it's a very funny joke to call mama "mommy." She doesn't like it as it took her long enough to get Henry to stop calling her Becky.
Yesterday on the way home from school, Henry was chatting nonstop (what's new). Our favorite topic after school is what we'll eat for lunch. Usually it's peanut butter and jelly, grilled cheese and pickles, or bagels with fruit on top. Yesterday, Henry focused in on vegetables, proclaiming that his favorite vegetable was baked beans and he'd never have to eat anything else again because beans are a vegetable and he chooses baked beans. Mama argued with him for a while that baked beans are really a legume in sugar sauce, but he wouldn't hear it. Luckily, he still agreed to eat his corn before he got his bowl of baked beans.
On a cross-town trip, Henry announced that he needed to pee. As we were only a few minutes from home, mama asked if he could hold it until we got home. He decided he wanted to stop and use a restroom in a gas station. Because I was with them, mama did not want to stop and try to deal with two kids in a nasty gas station bathroom. But could he please hold it until we made it home to our potty? This launched Henry into a 5 minute lecture on how "those buildings have restrooms with toilets. Our house has a bathroom with a potty. I don't want to go to the bathroom, I want to use the restroom." Luckily he talked so long he forgot about aving to pee until we got home.
We try to give Henry positive reinforcement as often as possible, becuase it feels like we spend most of our time yelling at him and saying no. Apparently, this is already annoying for him because yesterday mama applauded him for making a good choice and he chastised her not to say those words because "good" and "choice" are bad words in this house. Unfortunately, the phrase "What the heck?" has passed his strict standards and is often muttered under his breath.
Finally, after lunch today, Henry told mama that his belly hurt and that he had to stop eating or he might throw up. Mama was a little concerned, but he didn't mention it again. When she put him up to bed, he was actually quiet and didn't come out for a while. She patted herself on the back that we might actually have a breakthrough. But 2 minutes later, Henry came downstairs and lifted up his shirt to show a belly covered in band-aids. He said the "George stickers" (our band-aids have Curious George on them) made his belly feel better and that it doesn't hurt any more. Mama wanted to take a picture, but it a drill sargeant about not encouraging Henry to get out of bed. So she just sent him back to bed. The good news? He hasn't come out again and appears to be asleep!
