It's finally happened

My son has proven that he can be a demon child. I'd seen glimpses of it before, but now I've seen it full out. On the bright side, his shenanigans prove that he's a quick problem solver; not sure there isn't an easier way for him to show me that.

His latest is that he doesn't want to go to bed, and if he does, not in his own bed. Not at all. Not. At. All. He discovered at my mom's about a week and a half ago that, since his potty training, a great way to get out of bed is to have to go potty. Between this, asking for things, asking questions and such, he gets up every 2-5 minutes for one to two hours each night when we put him down. No amount to beg, borrow or steal will get him to stay in the bed; he just walks out and comes down the stairs as quietly as possible so as to get far before he's discovered.

It's not like it works. Consistently, every single time, we put him back in bed and talk to him about staying in bed. He's got his dad's persistence, though, certainly.

Steven was out of town at the end of last week, and it lasted 1 1/2 hours one evening and 2 hours the next. I'd wake up in the morning, and he'd be laying next to me. I asked him, "Aidan - how'd you get in my bed?" "I just crawled in." He learned that if he waits until I go to sleep and then doesn't ask, I can't say no. Daddy came home Friday night, and so the other side of the bed was taken.

After my two-hour battle to get him down, we kissed him goodnight as we went to bed. A couple of times in the night I woke up because a little man was standing next to the bed asking to get in. I'd tell him no and put him back in bed. Woke up again and thought I was losing my mind. I could swear I heard him breathing, but he was nowhere to be seen. I got up and looked, and he was curled up under a blanket on the rug at the foot of our bed. Sweet, but no go. Same routine - put him back in, kissed him and talked about staying in bed. Woke up in the morning, back on the floor in our room. Come. On.

Talked about it in the car on the way to school, and told him it was important he stayed in his own bed tonight. He said, "No, I won't." I told him that he needed to, and that I'd put him back in bed if he got out. "You won't know, Mommy - you'll be asleep." The little stinker knows exactly what he's doing.

It's been a battle (of course, not for my parents - he stayed at their house Saturday night and was "angelic"), but last night he slept in his own bed. However, we may have a new challenge: Steven was reading to him before bed tonight, and it was taking much longer than usual. I went upstairs to check on them, and the two of them are curled up together in Aidan's single bed, sleeping like angels. Wish I could take a picture, but I know it would wake them up. I love those boys.