Saturday, Hunter had an utter and complete meltdown at bedtime.

We'd had a really busy morning out in the yard. Hunter went on his little slide and played in his toy car and went digging with one of Mama's trowels and found a WORM! (it was really cute: he was kind of clumsily digging around and then he stopped and pointed and said, "Worm! Worm! Worm!" I came over and sure enough, it was; he was very gentle and didn't squish it at all, picking it up by looping it over his finger after I showed him how) and saw bugs and birds and squirrels and flowers (it was really darling watching him squat down really, really low to try to sniff the short daffodils) and we fed the neighbor dogs doggie cookies and bounced a ball down the front steps and spun the big umbrella around and around and around and put things in the water containers and put pine cones in the bag and bunches of other stuff and all of this before naptime.

The afternoon was quieter indoor activities (okay, there was television involved), but even after a three hour nap, Hunter was apparently overwhelmed because, when it came time to get ready for bed, he lost it. He wailed for television, he wanted bath, he didn't want bath, he wanted "Ehgo!" ("Go, Diego, Go!"), he wanted "Light! Off!" (because the little light on the bedside stand meant that we were getting ready for bed), he wanted "Door! Open!" (to escape the bedroom) and everything was just awful. I completely gave up on bathtime and didn't even try to get him into jammies; I'd changed him into clean sweats for naptime and I figured that would be close enough for sleeping and as long as he had a fresh diaper, I wasn't willing to fight him over the rest of it. He refused to be tucked in and even threw his little elephant pillow off the side of the bed, still wailing.

I turned on our ritual lullaby CD, gave him kisses, told him I loved him, then turned off the light ("Light! On! Light! On!") and left him to himself for a bit. I checked in on him a little bit later, and he was still tremendously upset, so I gave him more kisses and left him again.

After a while, I checked in on him. He was still sobbing. I knelt next to the bed and started singing along with the lullabies.

"No. Sing'g." *sob* "No. Sing'g."

"No singing?"

Less sobby. "No. Sing'g."

"Okay. No singing."

"Music. Off."

"Do you want me to turn the music off?"

Calmer. "Music. Off."

I turned off the CD and came back to the side of the bed, tucking an arm so he was slightly nestled into me.

"Do you want Mama to sing the Monkey Song?"

Happy sob. "Munhee. Song."

I softly sang "Pop Goes The Weasel," one of Hunter's favorites.

"Do you want Mama to sing the Kite Song?"

Another happy sob. "Tite! Song."

I half sang, half-murmured "Let's Go Fly A Kite," thankful that he doesn't know what the melody is supposed to sound like.

Should I ask him if he wants Teddy Bear? A brief pause, and he pre-empted me:

"Teh'ee behr? Sing. Teh'ee behr?"

I very softly sang the teddy bear song, giving him a kiss at the end.

"Munhee? Song? Munhee? Song?"

"You want Mama to sing the Monkey Song again?"

Relieved at being understood. "Munhee. Song."

"Okay, but this is the last one. Last one."

So I sang "Pop Goes The Weasel" as a lullaby. When I was done, I gently picked him up and rotated him so his head and feet were where they were supposed to be.

"Piyyow?"

I moved the pillow from where I'd put it after picking it up off the floor and tucked it under his head.

"Tuck? Tuck?"

I tucked him in all nice and snug and gave him more kisses.

"Night night."

"Nigh' nigh'."

"Sweet dreams."

"See. Deems."

"I love you."

"Uv. Oo."

*sigh*

And that's why it's all worth while.