Bed Time

Brother was going to bed the other night in his pack and play in the closet (his bedroom from the time he was 10 months old until his second birthday). Lately he has been sleeping with a menagerie of stuffed animals, a fleece giraffe blanket, and a large round pillow originally designed to be a pet bed.  Each night he takes roll call to make sure all the appropriate animals are present and accounted for. By the time roll is taken and he asks us to fetch anyone who is missing, there is very little room left for the boy.

This particular evening he noted someone was missing from the lineup. He insisted that I go find "Ze-rah." He became more and more frantic as I ran through the options of who Zerah could be. Not a zebra. Not Eeyore. I was clueless. Then he added, "Baby Ze-rah!"  Now Zerah sounds much more like "zebra" than his sister's name, but when I clarified he was adamant that I go and get his sister to say good night.

I went and got Sister and brought her into his closet... I mean, his room. He indicated that he wanted to hold her and sat down. When I lowered her into his bed for a kiss, he laid down, and threw an arm over her like he does with his stuffed animals when he is going to sleep.

As a carefully extracted his 2 month old sister from his grasp, I tried to explain that he could kiss her good night, but that she had to sleep in her own bed. Brother dear dissolved into tears.

I am delighted that he loves his sister. I am sure someday he will understand why a two month old cannot share a pack and play with a two year old, 9 stuffed animals, and a pet bed.  For now, I am just so glad that he wants to be near her.