Night Reading

My son has been given the privilege of reading at night after lights out time.  This is a new thing based on him not being ready for bed or sleepy.   Some nights it would seem he would be awake in his bed for a good while before falling asleep.   We tried multiple things, including pushing his bedtime a half-hour later, but we’ve still been trying to find a good solution.

Staying up late isn’t a problem as long as he gets up in time to get ready for school.   That was the only part we were unsure about with this night reading.   But hey, he’s wanting to read, right?  He wants to stay up late and do the thing we wanted him to do for a long while that he had no interest in doing.

So it’s a win, as long as it isn’t a lose.   And so far, it’s working out.   Tonight he’s up in his bed, engrossed in the Guinness Book of World Records 2019 edition he got for Christmas—not particularly light reading, but fascinating to him.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has the loudest, “show off” voice of any child I know.   When friends, family or adults come over and he wants to impress, he uses this overly loud voice coupled with an almost fervent need to be heard, interrupting both physically and verbally so he can be heard.   He wants to be liked.   We’re working to help him in good ways to show it.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter came down tonight and told me what I had been expecting to hear last week but didn’t because she’d fallen asleep before her brother came to bed every night: his reading light is too bright.   This is from the child who has very little vision at all.   The light, through her eyelids, is so bright it’s hurting her eyes.   I have the highest doubts that’s true given that the light is only visible to her as a reflection off the ceiling.   The night light that shines up on the ceiling she has a hard time seeing.   She’s not in control of things though.   And she likes to be in control.   I asked her to come up with ways she might be able to solve the problem and she decided to pull the comforter over her eyes so she didn’t see the light.   Problem solved.   She was asleep two minutes later.