The perks of sleep deprivation

Rediscovering the joys of jumping
Originally uploaded by pure_h2o.

With the exception of the past few days, Eli has been sleeping like a normal human being for a few months now. I can tell a difference in him, and I can really tell the difference in myself. Sleep is a beautiful thing. But the for the past few days, he's been waking up super early, at times you only get up because you're going camping on a holiday weekend and you want to beat the traffic. I think its his teeth that are causing him to wake up this early, because he's also taking really short naps.

All this sleep deprivation makes for one very tired baby at the end of the day. And when he's tired like that, he's in one of two moods: screamy, whiny, cranky baby, or hyper, happy, focused baby. Last night, we had the fortune of experiencing the latter, and I'm happy to report, I enjoyed every second of it. He walks so much more when he's tired, and more than once, he ran into the couch, bounced his face off the cushion, and rolled onto the floor, all the while wearing a huge grin on his face. I don't think you could find a more entertaining evening if you tried.

We have this routine of letting Eli play in his room before he goes to bed, which he enjoys as he has yet to make the connection that this means that sleep is in his immeadiate future. Last night, he discovered the joys of watching himself in his closet door mirror. He stood in front of himself for almost five minutes making different faces and sounds and every so often breaking into fits of laughter. I wanted so badly to go grab our video camera, but I knew if I left, he would stop. After a while, he figured out that he could watch himself spin one of the rings on his play wall, and he admired his spinning skills in a whole new way. I could tell that he was very impressed with what he saw. What can I say, practice makes perfect!