We apparently missed the best night of our son’s life last weekend.
Pam and I got away for a night to Baltimore for a concert on Sunday. Weeks after we made our plans, we learned about a WWE event coming to Salisbury on the exact same night. That’s when Pam reached out to her brother to see (beg) if he would be interested in taking his son and Beckett to the event since we would be out of town. Thanks to Uncle Patrick for saying he would.
At some point over the last year, Beckett has become a huge fan of this brand of wrestling, which I call “fake.” He takes umbrage with that characterization, preferring to call it “scripted.” To back up his stance, he likes to re-enact in slow motion for me in the pool how the hits are real and painful but he acknowledges there’s acting involved to make it look more dramatic for the little kids.
He thinks professional wrestlers are both amazing athletes and impressive actors. That appeals to him and at this point his goal of becoming a professional soccer player has been edged out by being becoming the next John Cena.
While we were away enjoying our adult time, we were curious how much fun Beckett was having at the event back home.
Uncle Patrick reported Beckett said several times during the event how his wildest dreams were coming true before his very eyes and later remarked how it was the best night of his life.
Knowing he would want to buy some keepsakes, we left Beckett some money to buy some memorabilia to remember the event. When I picked him up from camp the next day, he was wearing the new outfit he bought, including an obnoxious Roman Reigns T-shirt, a chain around his neck with a wrestler’s brand stamped on it and a wrestling glove and matching arm band. His grandmother, who watched the boys while we were gone, said he insisted on wearing his new gear to camp that morning. It was an interesting look for sure.
Later we asked for the full recap and Beckett gave us all the details. He was quite passionate about the events of the night, including describing how he got into an verbal argument with some nearby folks who were rooting against his favorite wrestler.
While it was a great night for him, we could apparently have made it better for him. After we had moved on from that conversation, he remembered what he had been thinking about. The next time he would like front row seats so he can get high-fives from the wrestlers.
It really is true that once you become a parent sleep is never the same.
I have to terms with two aspects on the sleep front. First, a good night’s sleep means something altogether different these days than it once did. Secondly, if left alone in a quiet place, I can drift off anywhere.
Carson has sleep challenges. Rarely does he make it through a night without waking up at some point. The goal at this point is to ensure he gets back to sleep in a timely fashion without waking the entire house with silly antics.
A case in point was the other night when I heard him run by our room on the way to the bathroom. I figured I would be pro-active and join him so he would return to his room in short order. Because it was just 4 in the morning and I wanted to keep him out of our room, I offered to lay with him for a few minutes in his room. I was hoping he would drift back off to sleep and I could get back in my bed without him noticing. He never did fall asleep in his room.
Desperate, I agreed to let him come in our room and sleep in a temporary cot we put at the foot of our bed due to these recent sleep struggles. That didn’t work out either and he and our started that Saturday with a 4 a.m. wakeup call. These sorts of nights play out often. In fact, the best case scenario currently is for him to wake up — usually around 1 in the morning — and immediately fall back asleep on the cot in our room. We consider that a good night and that’s saying something.
On the second point, as a result of this inability to get uninterrupted sleep, I’m borderline narcoleptic at times. If I’m left by myself without any interupptions from kids or work, I’m a sleep risk.
Over the last several months, I have found myself falling asleep in a dentist’s chair, on a massage table, at the beach and even in my truck waiting for a soccer practice to wrap up.
Just this week at the Hilton in Baltimore, where we spent the night for an adult getaway, I was sitting in a quiet spot in the lobby people watching with my coffee while Pam showered. I grabbed the morning paper and thought how wonderful this was to not have to rush because mornings are typically quite hectic at our house.
Within minutes, I was asleep in the all too comfortable seat and was awoken by a custodial crew running a floor buffer a few feet away. My initial thought was how rude until I realized where I was and that it was 9 a.m. on a Monday. Back for another cup of coffee I went at that point.
