Bedtime Stories

The Family Man listens.

It’s 9:15 p.m. I’m sitting at the kitchen table, updating reports from work on my laptop, when I hear soft footsteps coming downstairs. Tommy, my two-year old, pads over to me in his footy pajamas, dragging his blankie. Rubbing his eyes, he says, “Dad, I can’t sleep.”

I lift him up onto my lap and say, “How about if we go back up to your room and rock for awhile,” I say.

“Okay, Dad.”

I carry him back upstairs and we sit in the rocking chair. We begin to rock, ever so gently. I think back to the many nights when my wife or I would sit in this chair and rock him for hours, trying to get him through a bad night. We haven’t had one of those for a long time, and I’m thinking this one won’t be like those either. He’s not sick tonight, and he’s tired. He just needs a bit of comfort.

“Tommy,” I say, “let’s talk about the things you like.”

He smiles. He likes this conversation, one we’ve had many times before, but not recently. He starts, “I like candy.”

Predictable. He does, in fact, like candy, but he had some when we read books just a short time ago. “What else do you like?” I ask.

Pause. “I like pizza.”

“What else does Tommy like?”

A furrowed brow. “I like swinging in the park. I like soccer. I like rainbows.”

“What else do you like?”

He goes on to list a few more things. Riding his scooter, playing with Play-Doh, petting the cat. All things he did today. A couple come from nowhere – ‘camping machines,’ a memory of the RV show we went to last fall. Swimming, something we have not done since last summer. I wonder what prompted those memories to surface just now.

He pauses. I’m sensing he’s done. “Tommy, are you ready to go to sleep now?”

He nods. “Yes,” he says quietly.

He pulls his blankie close. I rise up from the chair and lay him gently in his bed. “Goodnight, Tommy,” I say.

“Dad – I like you, too,” he says as he closes his eyes.”

It’s great to be The Family Man.