Six Emotions and Bedtime

A couple of months ago April brought a book home titled, "My Book Full of Feelings" by Amy Jaffe and Luci Gardner.  There are six emotions that this book discusses: Worried, Happy, Frustrated, Calm, Angry, and Sad.  April has done a wonderful job explaining these feelings to Samuel and he has significantly enjoyed the book.  We often find him "reading" it in his bedroom.  He can go through each page and tell you what the different emotions are.  In fact, he will not only tell us the emotion but also act it out.  When he says "Happy" it will be expressed with a high pitch voice and a huge smile on his face.  Then he will say "Angry" and do it in a deep ruffly voice.  Sometimes during the day he will randomly start to repeat all the six different emotions. He has also learned how they apply to his life.  There are mornings that he will wake-up with a smile on his face and come into the living room saying "Happy."  Those moments are special for a parent.   Although his vocabulary remains limited, his ability to communicate with us verbally is growing.  By understanding how he is feeling, we have a better knowledge of what his needs are at that particular time.  It also seems to limit the sudden change of emotions that he frequently can possess.  I consider this a small but significant step in his development and our growth as parents.

As I am writing this tonight, he has been put to bed only to have gotten up.  For some reason he is running around the living room in full laughter mode.  I'm not exactly sure what he is finding so funny, but it is always good to see him smiling and laughing.  However, it is obvious that he is very tired and is moving around in an attempt to keep himself from falling to sleep.  The last couple weeks he has gotten out of bed almost every night.  Samuel and Cameron share a bedroom, with a bunk bed.  Cameron sleeps on top, with Samuel on the bottom.  We have a general routine where they lay down, I tell them a story, pray, and then I sing a few songs (only a 5 and 3 year old actually want to hear me sing).  After the songs, I say goodnight and leave the room.  In the past they would occasionally get up if they were not very tired.  However, every night recently Samuel has ran into the living room a couple minutes after I said goodnight.  I'm afraid this is becoming part of his routine, even on nights that I know he is sleepy (like tonight).  It usually takes April or myself to rock him before he gets still enough to doze off.  Last night, he was not asleep when we were ready to call it a night, so he jumped in bed with us.  Most nights after he falls asleep I will carry him to his bed, but last night I just left him in ours.  I'm thinking that his recent desire to get-up is a combination of a new found routine and needing extra stimulation before he goes to sleep.  If any parents out there have bedtime suggestions, please feel free to share.    

Thanks for taking time to read this week.  I greatly appreciate all the support and kind words people have expressed.

Till Next Time,
Brian