"Nen, night night? No."

Shulamith will tell you that her child, Swen, is practically perfect. Well, of course! All little children are perfect; they come straight from Heaven, for Heaven's sake! How could they be any other way? Though perfect, some are a tad bit easier than others. Swen is seriously the sweetest little toddler; he is funny and happy and full of joy, very much like his mother. His one small "issue" is and always has been sleep. Sleep has always eluded him. He didn't actually sleep through the night until he was 15 months old, and even then it was hit and miss. Even now, he needs someone to stay with him each night until he manages to fall asleep, and that can take between 30 and 90 minutes. It's hard for him. However, waking up in the morning isn't hard at all, and he likes to do that around 5:00 a.m. Yep, I did say 5:00. Yikes! He will have some good periods, where he'll sleep till 7:00 or even later, but those don't ever seem to last very long. Currently, he's back on the "wake at 5:00 a.m. schedule," and his mother is three weeks away from giving birth to his baby sister. She is exhausted.

Today is her baby shower. I told her to bring Swen up at 5:00, so she could go back to sleep and be rested for the shower. She didn't. She waited until 7:00 because "This way both of us will get a decent amount of sleep to face the day." Fair enough, although I would have been glad to take him at 5:00 in order to give her some much-needed rest.

Here is Swen playing with toys:

The two of us just had the following conversation:

Swen: "Mom?"

Terrianne: "Mom is night night. She had to go night night because you woke her up so early."

Swen:  "Da Da?"

Terrianne: "Da Da is night night. He had to go night night because he works hard and needs to rest and doesn't want to get up at 5:00."

Swen: "Mom, night night. Da Da, night night. Nen, night night? No!!!"