Griffin, for about a week now, has been an absolute terror at bedtime. At nap time too, for that matter. He cries for me or Tristen to lay down with him and I mean he really bawls it out. When we ignore him he gets out of bed. If we’ve locked the door, as we’ve always done, he pulls on it and makes loud banging noises and more recently started turning the light on. If we leave the door open he leaves his room and starts to come downstairs, so we moved a gate to the top of the steps. He also tends to wake up and 3 AM and sometimes around 5 to go through this whole mess, and that’s after taking a lot longer to fall asleep than usual.

Last night was particularly bad. I started to wake up around 3 when I heard him crying. In my “I’m starting to wake up” phase I remember thinking about getting my clothes on to go put him back in bed, but then I heard the gate fall and his crying kicked into a higher gear, so of course I was thinking he’d fallen down the steps. Tristen said I was out the door before she was out of bed.

Everything turned out fine. He had just pulled the gate down and was standing at the top of the steps, and once I put him back in bed he fell back asleep pretty quickly. Still, Tristen and I had some adrenaline going. I’m not sure if she ever fell back asleep and what sleep I had was fitful.

Last night Fawkes had volunteered to cuddle with Griffin, which was really sweet. That seemed to help, although I eventually put a sleeping Fawkes back in his own bed because Griffin always ends up sideways in his bed.

With all that going on, we decided to move the beds together before bedtime. Phoenix and Griffin’s beds are from a bunkbed set (the exact same model my brother Adam and I had when we were younger), so we pushed those next to each other with Fawkes’s bed going sidewise at the foot of the other two.

Fawkes ended up sleeping between his brothers after Griffin fussed one time. We had to stop Griffin from messing with his older brother, but they all eventually fell asleep.

We also put a baby gate in the doorway so we could leave the door open without worrying about anyone getting near the stairs.

In other news over the past week, my parents came for a visit on Thursday and Friday. All the kids had been looking forward to it. My mom took Milly out on Thursday evening before taking her back to her mom’s house. I think my mom really enjoys being with Milly.

Dad helped me move a bookcase from the sunroom to the boys’ bedroom. It had been my parents’ originally, but we had it for a little while. It’s a beast of a thing and when we were trying to angle it onto a dolly at the top of the steps, it slipped a bit and, had my dad not been on the landing, he would have been knocked down and severely damaged by the thing. As it was, it just pushed him back into the wall, but not in a way that he was hurt; it just knocked him back.

He also helped me figure out how to disassemble a daybed Tristen bought from Facebook Marketplace, move it, and put it in the sunroom. It’s rather large and we have it blocking the doors that go into the room so you have to come through the opening facing the living room. I might see about moving it against the windows at some point.

I do feel like we’re starting to get more settled into the house. Over the previous weekend we moved some things and hung a few more things up, put a rug in the living room. We’re making it more our own. It’s been six months, sure, but it’s slow going when you’ve got all these kids.

The college basketball season started, and #9 Duke kicked it off with a solid eight point win over #10 Kentucky. I thought it was a very entertaining game. Duke only hit one three, but their interior play and defense won the day. They also played Army Friday night and Campbell on Saturday. Campbell led for a good bit of the first half and, despite the 11 point final Duke margin of victory, Campbell never really went away.

Fawkes and Phoenix can both easily spell their names now. Phoenix even wrote it once on his own.

I might not have mentioned, but I’ve been on a pretty big anime kick lately. My friend Jason got me started with My Hero Academia. That was followed with Attack on Titan, Demon Slayer, Death Note, Jobless Reincarnation (for me; Jason hasn’t watched it), and The Promised Neverland. Jason was trying to get me to watch Cowboy Bebop, which will probably be next for me, but I went ahead with The Promised Neverland because the whole series is only 23 episodes and, more importantly to me, Milly was watching it so she and I could talk about it.

She has plenty of shows she already liked watching, like Gravity Falls (which she had already watched, but we watched together last year), Adventure Time (which I’d probably like), and The Owl House, which I first mentioned to her because I heard about it and thought she’d like it, but have never watched myself. But I got her into anime by first getting her to watch My Hero Academia (although some of her friends were already watching it, so that probably helped). She’s watching Demon Slayer too, which does have some pretty graphic scenes, but here’s the thing about a lot of these shows that I came to realize recently: I really appreciate these shows for the way they endorse intelligence and kindness.

I don’t think she should watch Attack on Titan (way too violent and graphic) or Jobless Reincarnation (too much horny dude talk), and the premise of Death Note might be a bit much (although the fun of the show it he cat and mouse game between Light and L), but I don’t mind her watching the other shows.

This post was supposed to mainly be about Griffin’s sleep troubles and here I am getting ready to write an essay on anime.

Another note on Milly: She inspired me to start back up with Duolingo. She randomly decided to do German and is currently on a 30 day streak. I decided to pick back up with the French I started a few years ago. I feel like I’m picking it up pretty well. Really a great program.

Anyway, hopefully we’ve found a solution for Griffin. I just went upstairs because I heard some light crying and found Fawkes and Griffin moving around a little. I’m guessing Fawkes was in the crack between Griffin and Phoenix’s beds or maybe Griffin grabbed him or something, but I put Fawkes back in his bed and they both fell right back asleep. So, fingers crossed.