He Has Limits

Wyatt is unbelievably patient with Natalie's rare fits of crying. In all fairness to her, she really is a great baby and cries are reserved for hunger and sleep-protesting. Unlike Wyatt, she doesn't have the world's quietest cry so it can get a little grating. He's started simply putting his hands over his ears to block out the sound or, if he sees her headed down that path, imploring me to "talk to Natalie, Mommy!"

Last night Jeff had to work crazy-late so bedtime was just the three of us. Unfortunately, Natalie's need-to-eat cry and sleep-protesting time converged and it was ugly for a little while. Since she would neither eat nor sleep, I couldn't get her to calm down and Wyatt's bedtime was long overdue so we just took our crying Natalie upstairs while Wyatt got ready for bed. Through teeth-brushing, face-washing, clothes-changing and book-reading, I jostled and juggled her in attempts to get her to quiet down. It was all for naught. So by the time the actual getting in bed part rolled around, I just laid Natalie on Wyatt's floor so I could give him a proper tuck-in.

We did our standard "what we doin' tomorrow" conversation and a blessing over Natalie's noise pollution and then it was lights out. On my way out of his room, I gathered up his dirty clothes but apparently I wasn't moving quickly enough because Wyatt sat up in bed and said, "Mommy, I want you to take Natalie with you!" I laughed and said, "you want me to take her with me?" and he said, "Yes! She will keep me awake if you leave her here!"

So I guess a shared room is currently out of the question.