Nighttime negotiations

Allen had been doing a great job sleeping in his own bed until a few nights ago. After we put him to bed, but before we retired, we heard this coming from the monitor ...

"Mommy, I'm OK I'm OK I'm OK ..."

This crescendoed to a frantic call for me. I went to his room, whisked him out of his crib and brought him into our bed. And, so we've heard the above calls each night since.

Monday we decided to put an end to the co-sleeping, and I rocked him to sleep. After two hours, I finally got him into his bed. Last night we got him back to his bed after only about a half-hour. And tonight, I didn't even get him out of his bed. Not that he didn't try. Here are the highlights of his "negotiations."

Allen: Mommy, Mommy. I need to ask you something about the animals on the green chair (the glider in his room).
Mommy: I'll sit in the green chair, and you ask me from your bed.
Allen: I'm thinking of an animal that is pink and has a yoooong neck.
Mommy: A giraffe?
Allen: Riiight! Mommy, I need to ask you something about the animals. I'm thinking of an animal that is blue and has a yooong eyephant.
Mommy: Hmm ... It has a long trunk? An elephant?
Allen: Yes!! Mommy, you do this (puts his hands on the edge of the crib, sticks his butt out, and twists his hips back and forth).
Mommy: You want me to shake my butt? (shakes butt a few times).
Allen: No no. Yike this (repeats the above).
Mommy: (twists hips a little more till he's happy). OK. It's time for you to lay down.
Allen: Well, now's not a good time because because (repeat intentional) I'm not syeepy now. I'm too big to syeep in my bed.
Mommy: Should we take some of the animals out? (starts taking the bigger animals out of the bed)
Allen: Hey hey! Syow down. Eyax (relax)! Mommy, I need to sit on your yap and tell you something like this (squeezes his cheeks together with his hands). And Daddy will get the camera and take a picture ...
Mommy: Well, we can do that tomorrow, but now it's time to go to sleep.
Allen: Well, now's a big time (gestures with hands) because the picture (points to the Goodnight Moon picture above his crib) is bwoken, and we need to fix it.

This went on for awhile (I can't remember all he said), but I'm happy to report that we did get him back to bed, and we haven't heard from him in over a half-hour!

xoxo,