If Only...

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Breaking Your Own Rules

I have a strict-ish bedtime of 8:30 set for my 21-month-old son.  A lot of the time it's not even a problem; he's tuckered out and ready for night-night by 8:00 at the latest.

Tuesday nights, however, are special.

On Tuesday nights, my husband and I have couples' Bible Study (aka "Life Group"), and childcare is provided.

Now, my son is by no means what you would term "shy", and he thrives on getting to go see all the people from church and from getting attention from the babysitter.  By the time we leave around 8:30, he's wired.

Most nights we will just bring him home and put him straight to bed, but he was in such a wide-awake and happy mood last night, I couldn't stand to do it.

Plus, "Glee" was back after a long break, and Mommy can't watch it by herself, now can she?

So my mini-man and I stayed up late (for him) watching "Glee".  And I'm so glad I broke my own rule to have that special time with my buddy.

For one thing, it was a great episode.  (But then, aren't they all?)  But what makes watching so awesome is how much my son loves the music.

The first musical number was Sunshine Corazon singing "All By Myself".  When the people on t.v. started clapping and cheering, my son joined in.

Fortunately, when no one onscreen is singing or dancing, my son just chases the dogs around the living room.  This is awesome because last night's episode touched on Emma's OCD and Karovsky's latent homosexuality/homophobia, neither of which are topics I want to explain to a kid who's not yet two.

When Tina came back on to start singing, he was enthralled again.  When Sue's team of hecklers booed Tina offstage and she started crying, my son spread his hands wide and dramatically yelled, "Oh no!"  (It's one of his new catchphrases.)

But the highlight of the show, for both of us, was Mike Chang dancing to Jack Johnson's "Bubbly Toes".  I let the baby stand up on the couch, and we held hands and danced, him giggling like a maniac.  (I'm so proud to be raising a son who loves Jack Johnson.  My husband hates his music, so now I can play it with the excuse that it's what the baby wants to hear.)

Gwyneth Paltrow/Holly Holladay sang "Turning Tables", which gave me an opportunity to explain to my son that being really talented in one area (like acting) doesn't mean you're going to be talented in another (like singing).

The show wrapped up with Mercedes doing Aretha's "Ain't No Way", and she just killed it.  My son started clapping and cheering during the last long note, so my kid's got soul and he can recognize talent.  I'm a super-proud mama.

Once the show was over, I changed him into jammies and took him upstairs to hang out with his daddy.  While I'm awesome and playing with my son and keeping him in a good mood, I have no skills in the sleepy-time department.  Whenever he and I hang out just us, he's riled up and hyper.  My husband is the one who knows how to cuddle him and get him rubbing his eyes and nodding his head.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm very sorry to my son's teachers who have to deal with him being cranky and sleepy at school today.  But it's totally not my fault he was up until 10:30.  It's "Glee"'s fault.

Honest.

(Seriously, did you see Mike Chang dance?  Cra-zy.)

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