Colten's "New Stage"

Okay, so I have had little sleep the past 3 weeks due to the fact that my son has decided that he doesn't need to sleep at night. I often wonder, "Where did my little boy go? You know the one that thought he couldn't get out of bed for the longest time and wouldn't? The one who would go right to sleep, as long as we said our prayers, sang our songs, and told a story to. You know...the one who was a peice of cake to put to bed! Well, Colten has entered into a new stage of life I guess. He considers every time we lay him down as an opportunity to play and "test" his parents. It's kinda funny, not really cause it gets annoying, but at first it was funny cause he would just walk down the stairs and come stand right in front of us while we are watching t.v. after he had gone to bed and he will close his eyes. He thinks if he closes his eyes you can't see him. So he will stand there for the longest time giggling with his eyes closed thinking he is getting away with something! It amazes me that he still thinks he is invisible even though he has been caught in the action several times!

You know you learn alot about yourself when you have kids because they immitate you perfectly! The other day Colten was playing with this toy manger scene that he has. He put all the figures at the back of the table and baby Jesus in the manger at the front. He whispers to himself, "There now baby Jesus can sleep." Then he pulls baby Jesus out of the manger and giggles. He grabs Mary and Joseph, brings them to the front of the table, and yells, "Jesus, get back in your bed!" Like I said, you learn a lot about yourself when you have kids!

So, Matt and I decided, "Hey, he has a gate at the top of the stairs. Why don't we just close it at night so he can't come down the stairs when we put him to bed." It was like one of those "DUH!" moments! So the next night we shut the gate. It was awful! He cried and cried and yelled, "help me!" cause he didn't want the gate to be shut. (Maybe he gets that from his dad? Doubt that!) I told Matt he had to go up there cause I would cave. About 5 minutes later we found it was very quiet up the stairs. So we went up to take a peek and check on him. This is what we found....of course we had to take pictures it was so cute.

He had taken his bear and laid down by the stairs and the gate and fallen asleep. I picked him up and put him back in his bed and he never woke up. I hope we can get over this stage soon. It is cute to see some of the things he does but after awhile and throughout the night it does get to be tiresome! We have been telling him that God will snuggle him all night long. And I've been promising him that I will come up and give him one last kiss when he closes his eyes and goes to sleep. That has seemed to help a little bit. He did sleep through the night last nigh! He didn't wake up until 5:30 am. That is a huge improvement. Even though am not a morning person, his daddy is. So he enjoys that,....I think.