Samuel's Achievement

Samuel had a dry night last night! It all started when he asked for his “six o-clock”. Oh, maybe we need to start further back: We have a rule in our house that Samuel can’t get up until 6:00. Usually that involves trying to convince the 3 year old that all the clocks in the house say 5:00 (which isn’t 6:00) and that the sun really isn’t actually up yet. So now every clock, timer and circular thing with numbers on it, is a “six o-clock”. His “six o-clock” is an egg timer that we use when he goes to his room, or needs to take turns, or needs a reminder for those annoying potty brakes. He tends to ask for it at night when he goes to bed, and since it is only a 60 minute timer, we take it out of his room when he has fallen asleep.

But we had company last night and in all the fun I forgot that it was there. So at 8:30 his timer went off. Loudly. And up jumped Samuel, telling us that his “6 o-clock” said that it was morning. And since both Mommy and Daddy were awake, he must need to be awake too. So I told him that his timer was just telling him that he needed to potty, and then he would go back to bed. Because 8:30 pm is deep in the middle of the night for a small Samuel, he willingly did everything that I told him. And because he was so wonderful about it all I allowed him to keep his “6 o-clock” - running down, of course.

This time when he fell asleep, I took his timer. And did so again, at 1:30, because my Samuel could tell that his “6 o-clock” was gone and woke me up so I would put it back in his room. I didn’t do it at 4:30 because at that point Samuel got in bed with us and the timer isn’t allowed while I’m sleeping. Each time we made sure his diaper was dry before he got back in bed.

And so, we had a very excited Samuel who knew he had achieved something fabulous. And is still, at nap time, talking about what he did. I only hope that his mother can keep up with his awesomeness.