Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Apparently, I'm guilty of it. I admit it -- the boy sleeps on the floor. Heck, he doesn't even use a mattress. Well, okay, he has a mattress. And even a box springs underneath. It sits, forlornly, in the corner of his room. Every night, he goes to sleep... on the floor. In a little nest of sheets and blankets.

Why do I let him do this? Well, frankly, I have no idea how to make him stop it. I'm just happy he does it in his own room. For months, after the baby was born, he would sneak into our bedroom in the middle of every single night and curl up (blankets or not!) on the floor in various weird places. Sometimes at the foot of the bed or next to my side, which meant I sometimes stepped on him on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Other times he would be curled up in the glider, or between the glider chair and it's little gliding ottoman.

So, I'm just happy he stays in his room all night in this new house, for the first time, ever. Yes, he's 4.5 years old. He's just not a very good sleeper. But in this happy new house, he can see right into our room from his, so I guess he feels safer. Still, if my husband is out of town, he still comes to my room at night. And as weird and paranoid as I get when my husband is gone, I let him. You know, so when the crazy axe murderers I can't help but imagine come bashing through the walls, at least all the kids are already with me. I don't have to round them up before we make our daring escape. (Yes, I'm serious. I'm really good at nightmares.)

Anyway, last night, for the first time ever, he slept in Big Boy Underwear! Until now he's always worn a diaper at night, even though he's trained just fine during the day. But last night, he was a Big Boy! Yay! Go him! I must admit I haven't been suggesting it to him at all. For one, he never listens to suggestions like that. In fact, he generally does his best to do the opposite. And second, since he lives in a nest of 27 blankets and toys and pillows and who knows what on the floor, I'm dreading the cleanup required if (when...) he has an accident.

Maybe I'll be lucky and he'll never have one. HAHAHAHHA... okay, yeah, right.

Under the Weather

Actually, the weather is rather beautiful. But we appear to have come down with your standard October cold/sinus infection sort of thing. Nothing horrible, just unpleasant. Must drink many liquids and sleep and hope the baby sleeps. (Got about 3 hours last night, between the two kids and my own set of symptoms.)

I have no idea how I'm going to sew two costumes by Halloween, at this rate...!

Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever

Is one of my son's favorite books. I must have read it hundreds and hundreds of times. He knows the words by heart -- if I read one wrong accidentally (or even more fun, on purpose!) he can instantly correct me. We've discussed every single bit of every illustration in it (and the other Busy Town books, too!).

There's a Flickr site which shows you how it's been changed since the older versions, complete with humorous notes.

I really hate that. I don't like it when they make books "PC", especially in such ridiculous ways. It's really annoying.

How do you feel about it? Do you know of any other books similarly "cleaned up"?