A Sleepover

A Sleepover

For Zachy, the most exciting part of our trip to visit The Godfather and MummyMummy in Bristol last weekend, was his first proper sleepover with their twin 8-year old boys.

By first proper sleepover, I mean it was the first time that Zachy had slept in a room with one of the boys, in a proper bed, and not in a travel cot in another room of the house, or in with us. 

It was a real grown-up moment for him… and for me.  I can’t quite believe how quickly my little baby has become a little boy.

I have blogged before about Zachy’s very special relationship with his Godbrothers

He thinks of them as his big brothers and they think of him as their little one. 

They take turns to read to him, tickle him, chase him and sit next to him. 

He LOVES the attention and they love to provide it.  It is a win-win situation.

Well it was, until the sleepover.

The boys decided between them who got to host Zachy in their room that night and on this occassion it was to be A.

Everyone seemed happy with the arrangement and when the time came for all the boys to go to bed, K happily went off to his own room and A happily led Zachy to his.

Meanwhile all the grown-ups happily enjoyed a few glasses of prosecco downstairs.

Of course, I did not expect them to go straight to sleep.  There was much excitement and bed hopping for a while. 

We reasoned that he’d be tired soon enough as there can surely only be so much excitement a 3-year old can take.

A came downstairs a couple of times to say that Zachy wouldn’t stay in bed and kept getting up, so one of us would pop up to see him, try and settle him back down and explain it was time to sleep.

He is a threenager though, so obviously pays no attention to us whatsoever, and continued to keep A awake with various attempts to offer toys, games and books to play with.

A tolerated it really well but it was getting quite late and he was feeling very, very tired. 

I remember only too well that overwhelming, tear inducing tiredness that comes with sharing a room with a baby.  I could feel A’s pain at being forced to stay awake when all he wanted to do was close his eyes and wrap up warm under the duvet. 

As much as we all wanted Zachy and to experience and enjoy their first proper sleepover together, when it got to 9pm and Zachy was still showing no signs of slumber, we knew we had to step in.

So, we did what any good parents would do… we made up a bed for him in the lounge and put Toy Story on until he calmed down enough to fall asleep.

Parenting at its finest right there folks.

He watched the ENTIRE film. 

It was 10.30pm when I finally lifted him up and transferred him back into A’s room.  He turned onto his side, snuggled up with Bear and fell straight to sleep.

The next morning we woke to find A, K and Z cheerfully chasing each other around the house again. 

They had woken at 6am. 

Later that morning as we made our way to the secret playground in Clifton Village, I asked A if he enjoyed having Zachy over to say.

“Yes I did…” he said “but it was much harder work than I thought it would be”  

“Next time, I think he can sleep in with K”

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image credit: Miss a Liss on Flickr

4 Comments

  1. October 26, 2012 / 8:33 AM

    Hehe-sounds like what we would do if we slept away-this post made me miss Bristol too-we lived in Clifton village for 6 months before moving back to Leeds. Gorgeous place but I realised I needed to be nearer to my folks with Oliver.

    • Grenglish
      Author
      November 1, 2012 / 5:17 PM

      such a beautiful place, I’d definitely live there too x

  2. October 26, 2012 / 8:58 AM

    Oh boy, we have all this to come with Little A. Zachy must have been so tired the next day! I’m kinda dreading when we transfer Little A to her first bed, and the pitter patter of feet in the middle of the night! Anyway, you handled Zachy really well and sticking him in front of a film was the right thing to do – you know best :o).

    • Grenglish
      Author
      November 1, 2012 / 5:17 PM

      When we first moved Z to a bed he loved the novelty of getting out of bed, just because he could! We had to put a gate on his bedroom door, which did not stop him getting out of bed but did mean that he could not go for a wander in the middle of the night and fall down the stairs! Good luck, am sure she will be just fine 🙂

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