avocado8

Letting Go and Getting What You Want

A couple hours ago, I was frantic, on edge, in tears. Over code, and over all the things that were due tomorrow (and partly due to falling hard off the low-sugar wagon). It's amazing what letting go (and a little real food) can do for you. The to-do list is still there, some of the code mysteries remain unsolved, I'm still not fully packed for our trip tomorrow, and the Red Sox are losing.

I'm calm because once I decided there was no way I could do everything, I moved a few things to Monday and just decided I would live (and so would everyone else) if they were late. So Be It. <inhale, exxxxxhale> (As I type this, I can hear the Beaner's voice in my head saying, "just breathe, Mommy. Breathe.")

On a related note, Andrea had a post the other day about asking for what you want. I'm a big proponent of this (so much so that I sometimes forget that others aren't as willing to ask for what they want, and they get frustrated waiting for me to figure it out while I go along figuring that if they wanted something different than they were getting, they'd say so). You don't always get what you want, but your chances of getting it go up dramatically when you ask.

Ever since I got back from Seattle the Beaner's been asking to sleep in my bed (which he didn't get) and waking up in the middle of the night to tearfully demand a snuggle from me (which he did get). Since I also happened to be staying up late working—and even later reading Special Topics in Calamity Physics—this regimen of going in to snuggle him, or Al giving up his spot in our bed so the Beaner could snuggle me (if it was past 4:30am), was taking its toll on my sanity. (Actually, this may be more related to the first paragraph of this post than I realized.)

Last night I said to the Beaner, "OK, I need you to go to sleep now, so Mommy can go to sleep." Beaner: "You gotta sleep in here with me." Me: "No, boo. I'll happily snuggle you to sleep now, and I'll snuggle you again when you wake up in the morning, but in between I'm going to go to sleep in my own bed with Daddy. And I really need you to stay in your own bed and sleep until morning, OK?" Beaner: "You're going to snuggle me to sleep?" Me: "Yes." Beaner: "You snuggle me to sleep, and then Mommy can go to her own bed and sleep." Me: "Thanks, boo."

And ladies and gentlemen, he slept until 7:30am. It never hurts to ask for what you want.