Sleepy Boy

Have you ever been so tired that you woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t figure out where you were?  It’s a bit unsettling to say the least.  But one fact that you may not know is that it is infinitely hilarious when you get to watch someone else stumble around, trying to operate in that state.

Griffin’s little body has been adjusting to life as a Kindergartener.  On top of that, he had some big days in the last week or so.  Both he and Gage got to stay up late, and it’s been noticeable in their attitudes and actions. 

Like most things, once Griffin decided that he was potty trained, there was no going back.  He went straight from wearing diapers to being able to wake up at night and go to the bathroom.  It was great.  Even now, his body will still wake him up if he needs to go, and that’s where our story begins…

Tamara and I were in the living room watching the end of a recorded Burn Notice, when we heard the boys bedroom door open.  The kids had only been down for an hour or so, and we figured it was Griffin just getting up to use the restroom.  We were right, in a manner of speaking, but our poor boy was having a lot of problems.

First, he couldn’t find the bathroom.  Instead of coming down the hall and turning left to enter the bathroom, he turned right to go out in the living room.  Something in his mind clicked and he knew that wasn’t correct.  He immediately turned and started heading into our bedroom, and again his brain prodded him away from that door but this time it finally supplied the correct direction.

Tamara and I got tickled about it and were busy snickering while the toilet lid was being banged around in the bathroom.  It was all fun and games until the crying started.  I immediately jumped up and shot off toward the bathroom (Tamara doesn’t jump up and shoot off anywhere, being 8 months pregnant).  Evaluating the level of distress in the cry, I was afraid that his little bladder had finally succumbed to the pressure it had built up, and he didn’t make it on the toilet in time.  As I rounded the corner, I saw that things were much worse than that.  He had inadvertently put up both the lid AND the seat and was on a downward course for toilet bowl.

I started shouting, “Wait!  Wait!” and sped off, barely intercepting him before he deposited his entire body into the water of the toilet bowl.  I got the lid down, and got him on the seat just as the flood gates opened.  With eyes barely opened, he sat and finished his business.  I stayed with him, since I wasn’t exactly sure that he was completely functional.  And it’s a good thing I did. 

After he got up and started back out of the bathroom, he again took a wrong turn and started heading toward his old room.  We moved the boys about a month ago, and redecorated their old room as a nursery for baby sister.  In retrospect, I probably should have let him go in and search for his bunk bed.  It would have been a lot of fun, and I doubt he’d remember it anyway.

It’s easy to laugh at.  I’ve been there before.  A while after I moved out of the house and got married, my parents knocked the walls out of my old room and expanded their master bedroom and spare bedroom.  One time, while we were visiting, I got up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, when I finished, I headed down the hallway and walked smack into the wall that now covered my old doorway.  I tell you, it’s a shock to the system to find a wall where your brain told you there shouldn’t be one. 

I’m sure I’m not the only one to ever experience this sort of thing.