Birthday Weekend

Jakie's little party was at Grandma's house. As each guest left, Jacob politely said "Thanks for coming to my birsday party." I didn't even have to remind him. So this morning he asked, all concerned, "When Angie (this is how he pronounces Andrea) and Evawyn weft, did I say 'thanks for coming to my birsday' to them?" Oh my God, he's so cute! So we set to writing them a thank you note, which we were going to do anyway, and he's just finishing up coloring on it now.

Speaking of God, I'll take this time to comment on one Jacob's recent phrases: He says all the time now, "I swear to God _____ (fill in the blank)." I think this comes from me saying "If you don't get over here right now, I swear to God I'm going to...." *sheepishly grinning*

When we came home from the party there was a string of events and then bed, and a whole other string of events that happened all through the night. Jacob was sitting on the kitchen floor, which is on the back of the house, directly behind the living room and the bay window, which looks out onto the main road that we live on. It was dark but the shade was still open, and all at once Mango jumped up, right onto the seat of the bay window and started barking her head off. Usually such a reaction is set off by a runner going past, but this time was different. There was real emotion in her reaction, a 'what's that Lasssie, Timmy is stuck in the well?' emotion. I walked up to the window and saw the scene she must have been reacting to: Jacob's relfection in the window, set right on the busy road. Was Mango trying to tell us something? "Jacob's playing in the middle of the road and is going to be hit by a car!!" I don't know if she's that smart, or it just freaked her out, but there was a lot of calming down required after this incident.

Jacob eventually went to bed, and I was left alone to decompress from the day. I can't remember what I did, I was that tired. It must have been productive time though, because when I got up in the morning things were pretty much clean.

So there was the night and the kicking off of the covers. What is up with this? I think most kids must do it, because it's something that's come up a lot in conversation with my mom friends. But seriously, why? Why does my son lay there in a cold, dead sleep and kick off the covers when I get into bed? That's when I'm most cold, so I naturally want covers. I put them back on. He kicks them off. It's freezing in the upstairs because we don't use the electric heat that is there, we rely solely on the heat-rising effect from the downstairs radiators. So I put them back on again. He kicks 'em off again. I get mad, put them back on ever..so..gently. He begins bicycling his legs in an attempt to destroy to evil force that is trying to shelter his sweet body. I hold the covers in the air above him as the insane bicycling continues for a good 2 minutes. Keep in mind that he is still in stage 3 or 4 sleep. Also, remember that the whole point of this 'war of the covers' is that it's freaking cold on the other side of the covers and the extreme leg pumping is creating a much unnecessary breeze. I never knew the wind chill factor applied to the temperature in the bedroom.

Usually after the bicycle legs calm themselves, I slowly lower layer upon layer onto my now-still child's body. This well-earned comfort only gets me about a minute of peace before Jacob just goes ahead and wakes up anyway. Still off the birthday high though, he woke in a happy mood .

Then there's Jacob slowly circling my face with his finger tips, then me, turning to him and us rubbing cold noses. A perfect moment. The calm before the storm.

Soon he sits up and thinks for a moment before saying in a scratchy voice, "I want water...please?" And simultaneously doing the please sign on his chest. Way to go kid. It's plainly obvious that he spent that brief moment priming himself, "OK, you've got one chance to get your way here, make it a good one." How could I say no to that? He was so sweet that I was actually happy to get him the drink of water!

After the second time I got up to get him water, and I was just climbing back into the sweet warmth of the bed, Jacob says "I'm hungy." Damn. I know he's hungry, the last thing he had was cake so many hours ago. I know he's not going to sleep well on an empty stomach, and conversely I know that if he eats in the middle of the night he's going to be training his body to awake each night to again eat. But what can I do, he's so skinny that I never pass up an opportunity to get calories into him...I got back up and was just stepping down off the bed, over Mango, when Zach mumbled "Want me to get it?" Yeah, thanks. At least I can't say he didn't offer, right?

At this point he was sitting up, eating, in bed. The covers mostly off, I'm freezing and I don't want to move. I kicked Zach til he woke up. "Good, you're awake," I said. "Reach down to my bottom drawer and get my pink sweatshirt." He reaches down and comes back up with a pair of shorts that he tosses my way. "Nooo. My....chatter...pink...chatter...sweathiiiiirttt!" Stretch Arms finally got it right and I didn't hesitate putting it on.

Jacob: "I don't like that setshirt."
Me: "Too bad. I need it because I'm cold because you won't let me have covers."
Jacob: "Here, I'll snuggle with oou."

After a minute of snuggling, Jacob says "I don't have enough arms for making oou warm." Somehow that sounded bittersweet or something. Maybe it was my extreme exhaustion. And you wonder why I have trouble sleeping...