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Paul Thomas: Things to Remember, Month Twenty-Three

Last night Little Paul slept in his big boy bedroom for the very first time.  We'd been planning on starting off slowly, reading his bedtime stories to him on the bed, letting him nap there, etc., before actually letting him sleep there all night but last night he insisted.  "Big Boy Bed!  Sleep Big Boy Bed" he fussed as I tried to convince him to go into the nursery and sleep in his crib.

I tried to stay strong, but after a few minutes of LP pleading to sleep in his new bed I thought, "what the hell" and told him we could try it out.  I laid down with him for a little while until he settled down and was laying (mostly) still.  He cried for a few minutes after I left the room and then all was quiet for the rest of the night.  This morning he slept until I woke him up to get ready for the day. He seemed a bit surprised to wake up in another room but was also very excited about his big accomplishment.  We'll see how it goes again tonight!

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When I went to bed last night I checked on Little Paul in the big boy bed and then crossed the hall to shut the door to the nursery in case he got up in the middle of the night.  As I pulled the door closed my thoughts flashed back to the very first night we moved him from sleeping in our room to sleeping in his room.  He was so teeny tiny, about 10 weeks old, when the pediatrician recommended that we make the switch.  I couldn't bear the sight of his little body in the big big crib and insisted that we let him stay in the bassinet for a while longer. 

And so, last night, remembering that night many many months ago I started to cry. I curled up on the comfy rocking chair in the nursery and let the tears flow for a few minutes in the darkness.  There's nothing I love more than watching Little Paul grow and learn but at the same time my heart is breaking that my baby is no longer a baby. 

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A few more big boy things to remember:
  1. The word "movie" comes out as "boobie."  Which is hilarious and much less r-rated than the way my husband said "truck" when he was the same age.
  2. Little Paul talks in full out sentences, stringing together 4 or 5 words at a time. 
  3. We picked up a free catalog of all of the Thomas the Train toys at our local toy store.  LP LOVES to sit down and page through it- reciting the names of all of the trains.  It actually occupied him for about 3 hours in the car on our recent trip home from Pennsylvania.
  4. He mimics everything.  If someone sneezes, he says "bess you!"  If we're trying to get the dogs to come inside he'll stand in the door yelling "Socksie in house!  Gabby in house" while rubbing his fingers together as though he's snapping them.
In just a few short weeks Little Paul will be two years old.  And with that I leave you with this quote from Christopher Morley *: 


"We've had bad luck with our kids.  They've all grown up."


* Christopher Morley was an American essayist, novelist, and journalist, who, apparently, graduated from Haverford College which is the alma mater of both of my younger brothers.  


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