Sleep is the new coffee

Want to know how to kick the coffee? Try sleeping. Seriously, I cannot recommend it more highly. I've stopped counting the numbers of nights. I almost take for granted that I'm embarking on a solid night of sleep once my head hits the pillow. Almost.  And during the daytime I never wonder anymore if I should skip the mug and just mainline the caffeine.

There's still one or two things that amaze me about the whole shift in sleep thing. For example, I didn't tell you but after about a week of solid sleeping I decided, on a whim, to move Oliver into his own bed in his own room. You would think at that time I would be worried about changing something that finally seemed to be working, but, well, I didn't really think it through. But it didn't seem to matter. So Oliver is now sleeping in RT's room while he is away in London. But the really, really amazing part is the way he goes to sleep each night. You see, Oliver has never, ever been able to fall asleep without me or Nik next to him. Before we discovered the joys of melatonin this sometimes ate a two hour chunk out of my evening. And usually he wanted me to sing to him as he drifted off. It's a good thing I have fond associations with Twinkle Twinkle or I might by now have an unabiding hatred for the song!  These days, however, we all gather for stories in the big bed -- the one Sami and Oliver have shared for the past few years-- and then Oliver will inevitably tell me that he wants to go to bed, I'll say good night and off he goes. Nik tucks him in, turns off the light and we don't see him again until sometime the next morning.

How amazing is that?

And with all this rest, Nik and I are doing radical things: He is taking a half day off on Fridays, we take a yoga class together, then a leisurely walk home. We've hired a babysitter two Saturdays mornings a month so that we can start biking together again. We're thinking of going out in the evening! Together. Like on a date.

Radical things, I tell you, are happening in this new year!  I think we're all shifting to a better place.