Jedi Mind Trick

I got my son to sleep last night with my special Jedi mind trick! OK it obviously wasn't really a Jedi mind trick but it kind of felt like it at the time and it made me smile. But I am getting ahead of myself, let me back track a little.

Bedtime in our house is pretty lax. We don't really have to be anywhere in the mornings so the kids can sleep in (and they will often sleep until 9:30 or 10:00am) so it hasn't really been a big deal. We always say we need to get it back on track and have a bit more of a routine and stricter bedtime (after all Cameron will be in school next year and we should start getting used to it now) but it just never seems to happen, that is except on Tuesdays. Cameron has preschool at 9:30am on Wednesdays and if I don't get him to bed at a reasonable hour on Tuesday night, I have to fight to drag him out of bed on Wednesday and we are inevitably late for class. So Tuesday is the one night a week where I make sure Cameron is in bed by 8:30. It is a struggle for us but we have been managing.

Tuesday however is also cheap night at the movies and the new Twilight movie "Breaking Dawn" was playing this week. Being a Twilight nerd I had to go. Now leaving Cameron with daddy in the evenings is no problem. He is well behaved for dad and doesn't need much more than a few books and a few snuggles to get to sleep. Paige on the other hand is a bit harder to leave behind. At 16months she is still not doing that well on solids and is a complete boob-a-holic. Getting her to go to bed without nursing is a real challenge and I always feel bad for Eric when he has to go it alone (not that I go out very often). I really wanted to see this movie though and Eric promised he would have the kids in bed on time. So I kissed them all and headed off to meet my friends at the theatre with my phone on vibrate in case I was needed.

The movie was great and it is always nice to hang out with my friends and have a little break. It was a bit of a wild night at the Terrace movie theatre though. After the movie was over my friend Tracey and I went to go use the washrooms only to find that we could not because some-one had thrown up all over the floor right in front of the bathroom door. NICE! There was a poor girl who worked for the theatre on her hands and knees with gloves and spray and paper towels, trying to clean it up. I felt awful for her.

Now I know that nobody really likes vomit, but I have some serious issues with it. I have something called Emetophobia. Vomit gives me severe anxiety and it is not something I can control. Just knowing that there was vomit on the floor made me feel ill. I felt that wave of cold panic creeping up my arms and legs, and my legs started to wobble. Then all of a sudden a rather violent fight broke out right beside me. One guy slammed another up against the wall and they fell over and started rolling on the floor locked in struggle, punching each other. We took that as our cue to leave. As we were standing on the street saying goodbye one of the guys from the fight came storming out of the theatre. He slammed the door of the movie theatre open so hard that it swung back and smacked him in the head. This made Tracey and I burst into laughter and just made him angrier. Now it was really time to leave.

It was around 9:20 when I got home so I knew the kids would be in bed (or at least I hoped they would be. The house was dark and quiet so I brushed my teeth and changed into my pyjamas in the dark. Eric and the kids were snuggled up in our bed and they all looked to be fast asleep. Then I heard Cameron's little voice pipe up "How was your vampire werewolf movie mommy?" Eric chuckled. I guess only Paige was actually asleep.

Cameron is super snugly at bedtime so I was kind of happy he was still awake, though I knew it would mean a struggle in the morning. I climbed into bed next to him and he snuggled up next to me and smothered me with hugs and kisses. I thought he would go right to sleep but he just kept talking and giggling excitedly and fidgeting like crazy. He was too wired to sleep. I told him a story but he was still wide awake and would not settle down. It was now approaching 10:00 and he really needed to go to sleep, so I pulled out my "Jedi mind trick".  I stroked his forehead and ran my fingers through his hair 3 times and said "you need to go to sleep now" and lo and behold he instantly fell asleep. Wow! I will have to remember that trick! He went from "wired" to "out cold" in about 5 seconds flat. It was fantastic!!!

It was good timing too as Paige must have sensed mommy was home and woke up crying. No need to pull out the Jedi mind trick on her, I stuffed a boob in her mouth and she was asleep again in seconds. Ha ha I wonder if a Jedi ever pulled off that trick?