The WORST NIGHT EVER and other recent events

From what I've heard, parents usually experience a serious lack of sleep when their child is a newborn.  We, on the other hand, were blessed with a baby who slept really well from the beginning.  However, that phenomenon was limited to times when he was sleeping in his own bed by himself.  He's never liked to be rocked to sleep, or have other disturbances while falling asleep or being asleep.  Therefore, vacations have always been a bit rough for the first couple of days, as have times when we've had to share a room with him.  And, co-sleeping was just never an option....more like co-playing.  I mean, why would he sleep if mommy and daddy were right there to play with?!

Anyways, I digress.  The main story is that a few weeks ago we had the three of us plus four friends to find sleeping arrangements for in our two-bedroom house.  So, despite previous bad experiences, we figured it would work okay to have the guys sleep upstairs in Kai's room, my friend Danielle sleep in the living room, and Kai sleep in his pack'n'play in our room.  The night started off well.  We put him to bed in his own room, and he slept soundly until midnight when we attempted to move him to our room before we all went to bed.  Then, the night continued like this....

12:00: Kai thinks it's play time since daddy and mommy are so close.

12:10: Bryon caves (after not having seen Kai for 3 days) and lets Kai come in our bed to co-sleep (our first real attempt at such a thing).

12:15: After a 5 minute cuddle session, Kai jumps, bounces, squeals, tickles, tackles and shouts "choo choo" every time he hears a train and he comes no where near to falling asleep in our bed.

12:45: We attempt to put him back in his pack 'n play, but he screams bloody murder and although we would normally be willing to let him do this, we realize that four other people are attempting to sleep in our house so immediate quiet is preferable.

12:46: Co-sleeping attempt #2, which is equally as unsuccessful as attempt #1.  Even when we do our best to ignore him, he manages to beat us into submission either by pulling our hair unmercifully or making us laugh with all his antics :)

1:00:  We attempt yet again to put him in his pack'n play, but he CRAWLS OUT (yes, that's a first!) and back onto our bed.  What a little booger!

1:05: Bryon decides to take him for a drive to calm him down (another first for us...the things you stoop to when you're desperate!).

2:00: Bryon and Kai return, but as soon as Bryon lays Kai down in his pack'n play he's screaming again.  Oh my.  We're tearing our hair out and feeling incredibly sorry for our friends (and ourselves!).  What to do.  We decide that everyone is probably awake anyways, so we let him cry and he falls asleep in a few minutes. 

2:10: Bryon rolls over in bed, creating the slightest of noises and Kai is immediately awake and screaming full-throttle.  I pick him up in an attempt to calm him down but he is absolutely inconsolable.  I am not even strong enough to control his thrashing, so Bryon comes to the rescue.

2:20: Completely at our wits end, we can think of no other techniques to help our poor baby sleep (along with the rest of the household). 

2:21: Bryon and Kai go sleep in the car in our driveway for the rest of the night.  Maybe Kai was just trying to create his own little road-trip experience with Bryon after missing out on the big boys trip!

So, there is the very incredibly long story of our worst night ever as parents.  It's funny to look back on it, but it wasn't quite so funny in the moment.  The following morning we felt (Bryon moreso than I, since he took the brunt of the pain that night) exhausted, and it made us incredibly thankful that every other night is so calm and restful at our house.  A big apology goes out to our houseguests though.  Know that we're working hard on finishing our backyard shed, so you won't have to bear the brunt of our household monster if you come to visit again :) 

And now it's time for me to go tuck my wee little one into bed, and leave him there in his quiet, solitary crib to dream sweet dreams.  Ahhh, the bliss.

Other than that, here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks.  I'm not sure why I didn't take any pictures while the sun was shining, but it has been shining finally.  Yay! 

Fun in our backyard with friends.

First bike ride of 2011.

Bryon took Kai on a bike ride to the local Dairy Depot tonight, and they gave Kai a Dum-Dum, which he obviously loved!

"Bryon the Bully"