Bring it, Sandman.

Sometimes, being a parent is almost like being a 5 year old the night before Christmas. Unless the universe explodes overnight, you know you're going to wake up the next day in a wonderful world where everything you ever wished for will come true. And really, who can sleep when you know that moment is a scant 8 to 10 hours away? That's how I feel now....Aidan is *almost* sleeping through the night. Oh, he's still getting up 2 times, but he goes RIGHT BACK TO SLEEP and he doesn't cry in between those times when his pacifier falls out.

So what happened? What finally caused this miraculous change? Well, therby lays a tale....

It's not a very long tale. We got so exhausted by his nightly shenannigans that we had to buy a book. I think it was called "How to Force your Precious Darling to Sleep Without Letting Them Wail at the Top of Their Lungs and/or Drugging Them, Possibly Risking Jailtime." That seemed a little better than the other book we were considering, "Duct Tape and You: 101 Ways to Keep Pacifiers Put." Apparently this book consists of structuring a nighttime ritual you can live with to help your child understand that it is definitely time for bed.

I say apparently, because I really have no clue. I know, I'm a bad father, but I haven't read the book. I've thought about it, and I've even picked it up, but that's about it. My wife is still nursing, so she's the last one to see him as he feeds right before bed. This doesn't mean I'm not involved, though-- I do what she tells me to help where I can, and once in awhile I manage to do it right. I personally still find the book useful, though. It's heavy enough to knock me out with one sharp self-inflicted blow to the head....ahhh, blissful sleep.

One last thought-- last night I realized I'm definitely going to be a good dad. We were sitting on the couch after Aidan went to bed, watching an episode of Lost on DVD. One of the characters was teaching the boy on the show to throw knives, and I "pshawed" when they did it. This earned me a cocked eyebrow, and without thinking about it I explained in detail that the knife they were using would never work for throwing because it was too unbalanced, and you'd have to throw it way harder than the boy actually was to overcome that and spin it fast enough to act as though it were weighted correctly.

Now THAT is the kind of random, potentially dangerous and possibly illegal stuff a dad SHOULD know. Well, that and why it's a bad idea to put gasoline in a blender.

Trust me.