If you choose to let your 4 year old watch "Home Alone"...

More on that funny story to come.  We'll start with a story about sleep.

Anyone who has known our family for a while knows that sleep has not come easy for Elijah... or for us since Elijah's arrival into our family.  As a baby, I feel like sleep more or less just didn't happen.  After the age of about three though, we have had things pretty well figured out.  We know that he has some 'special sleep needs' (as his doctor classified them for us) and we are very well accustomed to making those happen.  He sleep walks occasionally and we are used to that as well.

For roughly the past 18 months he has slept in a tent on top of his bed.  He is getting too big for it, so for about a month now he has been all on his own, exposed, in the big bed.   The transition has actually gone fairly smoothly and we even recently moved Gavin's crib into Elijah's room, so the boys are sharing a room.  :)

This weekend, Gavin was up bright and early as usual.  When I went to get him, I quickly noticed that Elijah's bed was empty.  After a second of shock, I reassured myself that he had just climbed into our bed on my hubby's side and I didn't notice.  I picked up G and took him back to our room - only to see that Elijah wasn't there either!  My instant thought was "How can our kid just disappear in the middle of the night?!?"  I woke Marty up to let him know that Elijah was not in his bed.  We all went into the boys room and just stood there for a moment staring at the empty bed where our 4 year old should be fast asleep.  He is NOT there.

Enter in roughly 30 seconds of shear panic (which of course feels like an hour) and we find him.  Fast asleep, underneath of Gavin's crib.   Amazingly, I had not thought to look for our child under the crib.  In the future, I now know.   Goofy kid.  "Special sleep needs" noted.

Not the best pic, but he is there, You can just barely see his little face under the blankets.

Now for the story about "Home Alone".  Classic movie really.  Not the best as far as language choices go (little things like 'shut up' and 'jerk' that we don't say in our house) but I didn't remember that part of it and I KNEW that Elijah was going to think it was HILARIOUS.   Last weekend when it was cold and rainy we sat and watched it as a family.  Good times and Elijah laughed uncontrollably.

Fast forward to Wednesday of last week.  When I go to pick him up from preschool, his teacher pulls me aside.   She says "During morning circle today, Elijah told a story about a little boy who shoots a bad guy in the penis."  Huh.  Sure enough, just as the robbers are trying to break into the house, the boy shoots a BB gun through the dog door and gets the guy right in the crotch.  Being only 4 years old, he only knows the anatomically correct word for 'crotch'. 

I cracked up a little bit and I think his teacher was very relieved when I was able to explain exactly where the story was coming from.  Uhm... without knowing the context or where he got it from, I am sure that it sounded pretty concerning.  It was a really good teaching time for Elijah about telling appropriate stories - which has to just be SO hard to understand as a 4 year old!

Something to think about if you choose to let your 4 year old watch "Home Alone".  :)

Happy Monday!