Huzzah! It happened!

Since Bryon started working at El Segundo, he's brought home more colds than I can count. Thankfully, Collin and I, being of stronger immune system stock than his weak father, have resisted more colds than Dada. But, last night Collin succumbed to the most recent bout of booger-nose. Why does it always happen at night? And, why does it always happen on the eve of some major event?...this one being our FIRST plane ride today to visit Aunt Robyn in Mississippi and celebrate her graduation from pilot training.

Anyway, since he was an infant, he's REFUSED to sleep with us. He wanted no part of snuggling in bed with his Mama and Dada, much preferring the solitude of his own crib, reaching and grasping for it the minute he sees it when it nears bedtime. I comfort myself when I think of the many minutes of lost snuggles I'm missing out on with the tortured complaints of parents who can't get their kids OUT of their beds at night. Still, on occasion, it would be nice for just a few minutes of snuggle time after a nightmare or when he's got a tummy ache.

Nope, not going to happen. He thinks the sheet patterns are a game or that maybe, just maybe we'll turn on the t.v. because once, just once, we did and he got to watch an episode of the Muppets on DVD with us, snuggled in a pillow nest on a Saturday morning.

Anyway, last night, after the billionth time of waking up in fear that he would never breath again, and thus crying and whimpering for Mama, Dada or whoever could bring him oxygen in mass quantities, I brought him to bed with me. I've tried this before so I figured this wouldn't work...but you know what? It did! He snuggled right in and flopped right down and zonked!

It was horrible. He pushed me, he kicked me, he flopped his arm across my face. He snored. He threw his pacifier in my eye, then picked it up again, gouging my eye in the process. He used my back as a kneading board for his toes, all while fast asleep. Then, he suddenly woke up, sat bolt upright in bed, pulled me by the arm until I was doing so too and pointed animatedly at the t.v., like "hey, that's what we do in here, right?"

Well, off to bed with him again where he promptly slept the rest of the night through. And you know what? Ten minutes after he was gone, I missed him terribly again. Every night, about ten minutes after we go to bed, I tell Bryon that I miss Collin and wish he was with us, and even after our "snuggling" that was not snuggling at all, I wanted him back. I wouldn't "slept" all night not sleeping to have my sweet boy next to me again.

What is wrong with us parents? More pointedly, what is wrong with us mothers, that we think this way? What makes us want to have knees in our backs, wrists in our eyeballs and snot caked to our cheeks from hot little fever faces stuck to our own in the middle of the night? Oh yeah, I guess it's pure love. And, it's pretty great, isn't it?

P.S. Wish us luck on our first plane ride!!!!!