My crazy little boy

At around 2:30 a.m., Duplo woke up crying loudly. I waited a minute or two to see if he’d go back to sleep, but he just got more upset, so I went in. I picked him up, found his water cup, and snuggled him for a few minutes, but he wouldn’t stop crying. He wouldn’t drink and would not be comforted.

I kept talking soothingly to him: “What do you need?” “Where’s your ow?” “Mommy’s here, you’re all right.” Finally he listened and said, emphatically, “Mummum!” In Duplospeak, that means “food.”

I staggered into the kitchen, trying to think of what I could feed him without turning on a light or making a mess. I wasn’t really surprised he was hungry; he was sick yesterday and didn’t eat as much as usual. I remembered half a pear in the fridge and thought maybe that would work.

I handed it to him, and he grabbed it, clutched it to his chest, and stopped crying. So I sat down and tried to get him to take a bite. He refused. Instead, he rolled over onto his stomach, cuddling the pear, and calmed down like he was going to go to sleep. I tried to slip the pear out of his hand, but the second I did, he started crying again. I decided to wait until he was almost asleep to try again; it wasn’t like I was going to let him sleep with the pear for the rest of the night.

After about ten minutes of quiet, I tried taking the pear again, with the same results. Okay, maybe I could let him sleep with the pear. I’d just change the sheets in the morning.

I put him back in his crib, and he immediately started crying and saying “Mummum!” again. Knowing he had a pear and a cup of water to eat and drink, I left the room. He cried and cried, though.

I said a prayer to know what to do and thought about trying Cheerios instead. I got a bag of Cheerios out of the cupboard and put it on my dresser, then went to get Duplo. He was pretty upset, and at first, he wouldn’t let me put any in his mouth. Once he knew what I was doing, though, he really got into it. He ate five large handfuls of Cheerios and drank about half a cup of water. Until he was completely full, though, he wouldn’t let go of that pear.

I wish I could say that was the end of the story. He did go back to sleep, but he woke up 1.5 hours later and again 3 hours later. I was up a whole hour the first time, and the third time, I made Jon Boy take care of him so I could get some sleep (Lego had woken up with a runny nose and needed tissues for about half an hour in there somewhere).

It’s been a rough night, needless to say, and I have to wonder what was going on in Duplo’s brain regarding the pear. Did he think that if he hugged it tight enough he’d somehow stop feeling hungry?