Edelweiss

Edelweiss - Sound of Music - Christopher Plummer's own voice from Mark on Vimeo.

Today we changed Benji's crib into a "transitional bed", i.e., a toddler bed with railings at either end. He's been successfully climbing/falling out of his crib for the past week, and hurt himself a few times.

I don't know why I thought it would be just like any other night, where I could put him in and walk away. He likes his freedom too much. So for almost an hour, we played "Get out of bed and find Mom so she can put me back in bed", including a bonus round of "crying so hard I throw up". I finally figured out (duh) that he wasn't going to stay, so I had to lay him down and sit in the opening created by the two end railings. He still didn't want to stay, so I offered to sing for him.

Now I have to add here that one of the only things that this busy, busy, BUSY boy will sit still for is when Kendall sings "Edelweiss" to him. He loves the sound of his daddy's singing, and will be so still I don't even recognize the tornado that is normally my son. So I usually leave Kendall to sing this lullaby to him, because, well, I love to hear him sing it, too.

But it was my turn tonight (since it was my decision to change up the crib situation) to figure out how to keep him in bed, so I sang to him. I used all my usual lullabies, but he wasn't quite there.

"Benji," I said, "Do you want me to sing Edelweiss?"

He smiled his biggest smile at me and said, "Yeah."

So I sang it to him about 20 times, the last time a gentle humming as I listened to my baby snore. Peace.

So I post the picture of my now FAVORITE flower and a video clip from one of my favorite movies, in honor of Benji, sleep, and peace.