An evening at home with a three year old

I mentioned on Facebook last night that I was ordering a bed wetting alarm to help Ian stay dry overnight. There were lots of helpful suggestions like deny liquids an hour before bed, pee before bed, use pee pads, don't let him in our bed, use pull ups, or wait it out. I thought of all these suggestions as we went through our evening together to see where they might fall into our routine. Here's an example from today: 5:30pm - pick Ian up from school. He asks for Mama milk but I tell him no cause I wanna get home. He complies.

6:00pm - Grocery shopping on the way home. Ian cheerfully sits in the cart eating strawberries and goldfish crackers.

6:30pm - We get home. I change pants and refill cat food that the damn dogs ate while Ian decides he doesn't like his shirt then cries because he is cold and can't get his shirt back on by himself.

7:15pm - Dinner of homemade chicken soup is served. Ian has two bowls plus a half a box of Horizon chocolate milk. We play trains and watch Caillou on the iPad.

8:00pm - Ian pees right before we go upstairs. We read our two new books (The Three Ninja Pigs and A Sick Day for Amos McGhee).

8:20pm - Mama milk

8:30pm - We both lie in the dark trying to help him wind down for falling asleep There are many questions like how does his Lightning McQueen car sleep if his eyes don't close.

8:40pm - Ian asks to pee again. He insists Lightning McQueen come too. He asks for the rest of his chocolate milk but I tell him we have to wait so he won't pee. He complies.

9:05pm - Ian gets up to pee again but says I don't have to come. Upon his return he asks for water. I tell him no and he cries for 5 minutes that he's thirsty and another 5 minutes that he doesn't want to sleep.

9:15pm - We both fall asleep in the big bed.

11:30pm - I wake up and transfer Ian to his bed. Rich comes home and I make Ian's lunch.

12:00am - We go upstairs for bed. I get to put our freshly washed comforter on the bed. I notice Ian has half fallen out of his bed.

12:50am - Ian wakes up, crawls into our bed but moves to the sidecar crib next to me (surprisingly). He asks for more covers and Mama milk. I tell him milk can come later. He complies.

Part of the reason I let Ian in our bed is it's some of the only time we get to hang out. Otherwise we get from 5:30pm-8:30pm and a lot of that is bedtime routine and tears over the injustice of the t- shirt he's worn all day that is suddenly unacceptable.

Other than the bed wetting soaking us all, he is a delight at 3am.

*Update* 4:50am - Ian woke up and said, "I don't wanna be in the crib." and moved next to me. He asked for Mama milk and I complied, figuring this will be his morning dose versus at 6:45 when I'm trying to get out of the bed. Of course, that dose of milk led him to pee just a little. He didn't soak the bed, just his undies and fleece pants. But that's a start ...