Monday, September 9, 2013

Slumber Time

Bedtime in the Peaceabull Kingdom is usually a pretty routine affair; the boys have a last potty break then settle in on the sofa with me to watch a little TV. Everyone has their place and falls asleep rather quickly. Within about 30 minutes of this type of rest, I can usually scoot myself out from under Ray. He sleepily opens his eyes but doesn’t move a muscle while I lift Julius off the sofa. Actually, three weeks ago I was carrying Julius to his crate, but these days, I lift his front legs off the sofa and he groggily walks to his crate and lies down.




I cover Julius and kiss him goodnight then return to the sofa to cover Ray and give him his goodnight kiss. Early on, I had Ray sleep on his mat in the kitchen behind the baby gate because I didn’t want him nosing around the crate and making Julius feel trapped or threatened. While I still keep them separated like that during the day when we are at work, I have found that Julius seems to take comfort in having Ray sleep close by, so this has worked out well.




There is another bedtime routine however; it’s an alternate arrangement for when Kevin is out of town for work. It’s Ray’s special time as we go out for the last potty break and I say, “After potty, you can go night-night with Mommy.” During the first week or two that Julius was living with us, Kevin went out of town and Ray and I had our usual little slumber party. I felt that this was Ray’s special time and I was not going to offer the opportunity to Julius for quite a while.

This past week, though, we started out with our usual routine, we tucked Julius in his crate and Ray and I headed upstairs and settled in for the night. Or so I thought. Ray lay down at the end of the bed, facing the door instead of in his usual spot and after a few minutes I heard it: Julius was whining. It was such a sad pitiful little cry, that it melted my heart, but I wanted the choice to be Ray’s. I said to him, “Should we go get Julius?”




We got up and Ray ran downstairs to Julius’ crate door, so I let him out and both boys headed back upstairs and were lying in bed before my aged legs made it down the hallway. I love how Ray is bonding with Julius like that. Although at TV time, Ray still is the one who gets to lie on Mommy’s lap, he is willing to have Julius nearby and they slept well together. Even better is that they both went back to the original sleeping arrangements without a thought when Kevin returned home.

Do your pooches get special or different privileges when one parent is away?

8 comments:

  1. That's so sweet that Ray thought it was OK for Julius to come sleep with you guys too. They are such great brothers!

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  2. Ours WERE sleeping on their beds on the floor before the summer but I was gone and the pups got to sleep in the bed all night. Now that I'm back, they are still hanging in the bed. But last year, they got bed privileges when I went out of town. We may need to get them a nice big comfy bed because they're the biggest bed hogs EVER.

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  3. Oh, my gosh. That picture is precious!! When John isn't here, Cooper sleeps on John's pillow. The first night when John gets back, Cooper always acts SO put out that he has to relinquish "HIS" pillow back to John! :)

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  4. So sweet and what adorable pictures!

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  5. That is so darn cute! We love tv/couch/cuddle time too. Oh and bedtime. As an only parent, our rules are always the same but should someone else come into our lives, I'm sorry but he does't have a say in the matter. He can sleep on the couch if he doesn't like it, lol.

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  6. So adorable! I love how in the first two pics they are both tucked into bed! :)

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