My Cup Boils Over

I was laying my son down to sleep for the evening when It occurred to me that trying to get a 4-year old to sleep is not unlike heating water.  Whereas a watched pot never boils, so does a watched child, never fall asleep.

The boiling pot analogy came to me however – as I lay there waiting for slumber to sweep over my boy, foolishly, as if it would actually happen in my own time.  We began the procedure with him laying and still.  Then his legs began to kick, just like a few tiny bubbles from a lingering pot of water.  Another few kicks and he was reaching his full 212 degree potential – I imagined that eventually he would at least plateau and then succumb to a lulled slumber… but this was a long time coming.

Every time I lifted my head, even as his breaths were growing heavy and deep, he would look me in the eye and smirk.  From my southern latitude I could have sworn those eyes were closed, but a simple elevation of my head proved that he was simply waiting for “company”.  Clever lad.

Of course it never fails that as I begin to give up and accept his awake-ness, I find myself settling in for the longer wait.  I’m the one who is nudged back awake when the wife finds me unconscious next to him, also sound asleep.  Just as I planned.