You never know how something is going to turn out until you give it a try. Ian has been talking about having a sleepover since the beginning of the summer. I am still not sure where he first heard about them, but he talks non-stop about all the friends he will have over to spend the night.
Being the naive and fearless parents we are, we decided to throw Ian a bone and let him get the sleepover thing checked off his to-do list. Everyone who has kids and knew me well enough, told me that Ian was way too young and this was a crazy idea. We picked Ian's lowest maintenance friend, Johnny, and asked him over. Johnny's incredibly cool parents were up to the zany idea and willing to give it a try. The plan was for Johnny to come over at 4:00pm and be picked up to go home at 10:00am the next morning. All day Ian was looking forward to Johnny coming over. He kept asking how much longer until he arrives.
A particularly funny moment happened when the boys proved you can be outnumbered. We had gone to the mall earlier that day and allowed Ian to pick out all the colors of m&ms he wanted from the candy store. He was so excited to be able to share these with Johnny when he came over. We told Ian he could have them after dinner. Dinner was a success and both boys ate well. As we are getting up from the table, Jeff started his speech on the perimeters for eating the m&ms. While Jeff was talking, Ian and Johnny worked together to get the step stool, grab the HUGE bag of m&ms from on top of the microwave and walk out of the room together with the goods. Jeff is still talking. It was hilarious and I couldn't stop laughing. Clearly he was not in charge.
The boys got along fabulously (as we knew they would) and when it came time to go to sleep, they eagerly got into their pajamas and brushed their teeth. The sweetest thing was when Ian asked Johnny if he needed to borrow a Gymbo (Ian's lovey) to sleep with.
Between Johnny's CARS pajamas, CARS sleeping bag, CARS pillow, Ian's CARS bedding and pajamas, it looked like the movie threw-up in his room. Ian has a rule that he can't watch tv when having a friend over. But seeing as how the friend wasn't leaving, we said they could watch one thing before bed. They chose the movie "CARS". Fortunately we only kept it to an hour and then turned it off.
At first there was giggling, talking, endless "last" trips to the bathroom, a call to Johnny's mom to say good night, and then it got quiet. Ian fell asleep, but Johnny was still awake. Wide awake. Johnny has this lingering cough (not contagious) that will go away once he falls asleep. But until then, Johnny was coughing this half-cough every 10 to 15 seconds or so. For 1.5 hours. Jeff and I weren't sure if the cough was keeping him up. I felt bad that it was taking him so long to go to sleep. I called Johnny's mom and asked if there was something we could do to help him. After a quick discussion, Johnny's mom offered to come get him. I wasn't sure what to do. I know how badly kids need their sleep and I didn't know if Johnny could fall asleep in a strange bed. Johnny's mom said he usually falls asleep pretty fast. I guess it was best for us to call it a night and for Johnny to go home. Better at 10:30pm at night, then 2:00am, right?
When I went upstairs to tell Johnny his mom was coming to get him so he could go to sleep in his own bed, he instantly broke into tears. He didn't want to leave. It broke my heart and I felt so bad that I was doing this to him. Ian woke up briefly when he heard Johnny cry and started crying too; he didn't want Johnny leaving either.
We had plans for Jeff to take the boys to get bagels the next morning. Johnny really wanted to still do this, so we stuck with the plan and picked Johnny up at 8:00am to get some breakfast with us.
I think my friends may have been right. But you never know until you try. Ian is already going back to his list on who is next to sleepover. I think we are going to give it more than a few months before trying again.
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