Every once in a while I have a “tale that shouldn’t be told”. I fear this may be one of them, but I’ll let you be the judge.

Our bedtime routine is pretty standardized at this point. After we’ve done the family thing, we split up. I take N to bed, and J takes C. I got lucky with this one. N goes to sleep ridiculously quickly.

Typically, we walk to his room, leaving the light off, and then I hold him and sing him my homegrown lullaby. I sing it once out loud and once as a whisper. At some point during the (bad) singing, N holds his hands out to his crib and says “bed”. I put him down, cover him with the blanket and then I’m done. The whole thing takes something like 3 minutes.

The other night, I was counting on this quickness. I had a rather desperate urge to use the bathroom, and was going through this normally short routine even faster than usual. We turned out the light, I sang to him, put him in bed, and reached for the blanket.

It wasn’t there.

Usually, the blanket is on the side of the crib so it’s easy to grab. This time, however, it was missing. I looked around, but the room was very dark and I couldn’t find it. He doesn’t use a nightlight, and when the light is off at night you can only make out the very vaguest of shapes. On a hunch, I felt around inside the crib.

Sure enough, my hand found the blanket’s corner. Relieved I wasn’t going to have to turn on the light and disturb the little guy, I grabbed and gave it a quick tug.

There was brief resistance, a howl of shock/surprise/dismay, and then a little thud.

Uh-oh.

Now I did turn on the light. N was lying on his back (still in his crib) with a big old grin on his face, “again!”

It’s worth noting here that N goes to sleep on his belly*. Seeing him on his back, and based on the sounds, I can only guess that the blanket was underneath him when I grabbed it. When I pulled, I must have spun him around. The thud must have been him landing back on the mattress. I really didn’t think I pulled that hard, but I guess I must have.

I just hope he doesn’t want this added to his bedtime routine.

[* For those new dads out there: you are supposed to put babies to sleep on their backs to prevent SIDS. N is 19 months old at this point and can easily roll himself over, meaning he’s beyond the point at which putting him on his back makes any difference.]