The Sleep Adventures of Andrew

This little boy is now too tall for his cot and so we have transitioned him to sleep on a mattress on the floor. He is rather younger than his older siblings when they did the same; he's not yet two.

The first day, at nap time, he didn't keep coming out of the room. Instead, he played quietly inside, taking all the clothes out of the wardrobe drawers, turning on the nightlight, fiddling with the toy kitchen set, and nobody knew. Helper found him sitting in the middle of a thrashed room, and Grandma helped fold back all the clothes while visiting us that afternoon.

Andrew particularly likes the wardrobe drawers, but he knows now that he is not to take the clothes out. So he merely keeps slamming them, if left alone and awake. The only thing is to stay in there with him until he falls asleep, and then creep quietly out. Sometimes I accidentally rattle the lock and he wakes up, so we have to start all over again, waiting for him to fall asleep once more. It's a very good time to pray the rosary!

The other morning, before sun up and when only our helper was awake and pottering about in the kitchen, she suddenly found Andrew there in the kitchen beside her! Quite a shock it was.

Another time, our helper had woken up and was on her way to the bathroom when she saw Andrew sitting quietly in the dark on a floor cushion in the living room. She led him to my room and I went back with him to lie down.

Once, in the middle of the night, I heard my bedroom door opening, followed by silence. I got up to investigate and found the door closed. Opening it, Andrew was standing outside in the dark corridor. I didn't feel like lying on the floor in his room, so I brought him to bed with me instead. I put him between his Daddy and me. Daddy was sleeping but suddenly sat up in the dark - he later told me Andrew was tickling him! Andrew also sat up, and to his Daddy he said, "Hullo!" We told him to lie down again and go to sleep, and he did.

Class 95 fm - "the best mix of music"

The girls are now Taylor Swift fans and Rachel was very happy to hear one of her songs on the radio in the car. This was followed by PM Dawn's "Set Adrift On Memory Bliss." After that, the DJ recited the usual Class 95fm tagline, "The Best Mix Of Music."

Rachel immediately went, 'It's not the best songs of music at all!"

She didn't like the PM Dawn song!

"Green" Building

I was quite excited to tell the children that I would be going for an excursion as part of my work, or what engineers call a technical visit. This would be to a "green" building that was built from 100% recycled materials, i.e., demolition rubble.

All of them were interested, and listened with attention. Rachel even asked, 'Is it light green or dark green?'