Perchance, To Sleep

So Kings has been gone a lot (I know, tell you something you don’t know) and this latest marathon communal sleep arrangement meant I went without. See, I used to put Rockstar to bed by himself and then trot off to the baby (who’d been put down for her night time sleep earlier) for the night. Unfortunately the baby then grew into a toddler who decided to stick it out past Rockstar’s bedtime just for the fun of it. Yes my toddler goes to sleep later than my older boy does. Unless I succeed in getting them both down at the same time (not that often).

To Sleep, Perchance To Cute Hat

Also, Little Miss has made it her current little life’s goal to keep Rockstar from going to sleep at night. I leave the two alone to go to the bathroom and I return to find her watching his feet twitch as she tickles them while he sleeps. She is not to be left with her fusspot brother unless she is well and truly unconscious and you need to constantly check she still is, she is an incredibly light sleeper. And the moment she is conscious enough to move she plays Will He Wake Up If I Do This? (Tickles feet). And this? (Pokes him in side with finger). And this? (Flops unceremoniously on top of him in the name of a bear hug). And this? (Moves to sit on his head which is about when I dive at her coming out of the bathroom and scoop her away from him just in the nick of time.)

Fortunately once asleep Rockstar can sleep through a bomb going off, rarely waking except to go to the bathroom. But then Little Miss is bold and…. creative? Once I came back in from the bathroom to find her theatrically “reading” her big board book of shapes – with the book resting on her sleeping brother’s back.

Sometimes I glare at her for that ill-timed gabble just when he’s about to fall asleep and she will mock-seriously put her finger to her lips “Shh. Sh. How does one keep a straight face to that?

One needs his personal space but discovered he loves the warm and fuzzy of a hug – when he finally hugged his sister. The other is a social animal who on a good day “Hi!”s everyone she meets – the Park n Shop sushi counter aunties where we pick up Rockstar’s school lunch for the following day. Random helpers walking dogs we pass in the the stroller. Who knew, most Hong Kong taxi drivers actually say “Hi” and “Bye” back.

Which is just great because last week with the unsleep I haven’t been hi-ing many passersby myself.

ps: Oh yeah, and she had her shot for her regular 18month too. Dare I hope she’s now developed Rockstar’s relatively high pain threshold? First time not even flinching at the shot, she used to really bawl her lungs out. 

Oh, and touch wood she has a clean bill of health too, though no one can do anything about the almost daily throwing up of one meal or other – it appears she just has really sensitive gag reflex.

BUT the biggest news was I managed to ask “The Nice Lady Doctor” as Rockstar refers to her about Rockstar’s height (whether he was abnormally short/small.) He’s not, after a brief discussion in which the phrases hormone shots and trip to the endocrinologist were mentioned (and thankfully dismissed). And so we all know what THAT means – that means I can bring Rockstar back for real and not blink when they take his height measurement and they go through the height charts. I asked Doctor Wong beforehand before we brought Rockstar back in case there was anything I didn’t want him to hear in quite “that” many blunt words.