Little Orphan Boy

You would think that, being over 2 1/2 years old, Sam would have finally settled down and become a good sleeper. If you put that logic into a paper and turned it into me next week, I would probably agree and put a blue smiley face next to your fine use of evidence to extrapolate a reasoned guess.

And we both would be horribly wrong.

Sam does sleep better. Most nights he sleeps through the night. He's learned how to settle himself down and drift on off to sleep. It just takes about an hour for him to settle down. So we shudder as feet kick against the window pane (since his bed is right up under his room's window), we listen in amusement to random stories about trucks and pumpkin patches that he tells himself to stay awake, and we feel the house shake as he stands up on the bed and throws himself into his pillows. We try to calm him down with soothing music and stories and cuddles and it sometimes works, but often does not.

And then there is the little orphan boy. On nights one of us returns late from a concert or from practice or from work, neither Joy or I pull into our garage. Sam's bedroom is right over the garage, and if he is halfway asleep, the knowledge that someone has returned to the house wakes him back up as he demands new hugs from whomever has arrived. So we park in the driveway. Since our lights will shine in his bedroom (since the curtains aren't finished yet), we even often even turn off our headlights as we pull in the driveway. But by the light of our parking lights, we sometimes see Sam peering out his window at us, as if begging to be released. You know those films where the hungry orphan gazes wistfully out his window, his gaunt cheeks illuminated by the moon? That's Sam. That's our little orphan boy. It is such a funny sight, that I'm sad when I don't see it, even though it means I'll have to go in and try to help him get to sleep. So tonight, when you pull in your driveway, look in the windows of your house and imagine our little orphan boy. And then go inside and get the sleep since the little orphan boy will wake you up at 5:45.