April 28, 2003 - Monday
Jeremy is truly an amazing boy (and a mature one if you use Paula Poundstone's measuring stick). Maybe it's just that he likes routine, but Jeremy is ready for bed at 7:00pm every night. I honestly can't remember a night when he's complained about going to bed and many nights it is actually Jeremy who will initiate the start of his bedtime routine. He'll point toward the stairs and make his bleading grunt sound and his mother will ask if it's time for a bath. He'll nod and come a give me a kiss, or rather present his cheek for me to kiss. After a bath his mother usually brings him in his room and sings, while I stay with Harry. But some nights, like tonight, I'll be the one to sing him a song or two. Or, maybe it's just a half of a song because when he's ready to turn in, Jeremy will most often point to his crib without prompting. It is just amazing based on anything that I've ever heard about toddlers and bedtime.

So, imagine my surprise this evening when, after finishing a bath with his brother (Jeremy likes two boys in the bath just fine now), getting dried off, and receiving his nightly anointing with lotion (Jeremy especially insists on getting lotion on his cheeks, often opening the cabinet, pointing at the bottle of lotion, and presenting his ckeeks), Jeremy started to wiggle and complain when I picked him up to go into his room. It occurred to me that he might want his mother to sing him a song instead of me, although he's never minded my infrequent substitutions. But somehow that didn't seem like his problem. His outburst seemed more desperate than an opinion of preference. Did he want to say in the bath with Harry? Stay up late?

Jeremy's persistent squirming eventually forced me to put him down and when I did he went straight for his mother. Ah, he does want mommy to sing a song and tuck him in, I thought. But, just as I started to work through the logistics in my head of my taking over with Harry, Jeremy turned away from his mother with a big smile, raised his hand to mine, and began to lead me out of the bathroom and toward his room. He had simply needed to give his mother a goodnight kiss.

Yes, that really happened.


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