My little prankster (re: sleep)

Ryder loves to stare at Blake.  If Blake enters Ryder's line of sight, Ryder is immediately enthralled.  Sometimes Ryder smiles at Blake and sometimes he just stares intently.  Either way, Ryder doesn't pay this same kind of attention to anyone else.  Blake, in a half-joking way, always says things like "Stop staring at me, you little creeper," "Stop creeping on me," "Quit giving me the evil eye," etc. etc.  In other words, Blake thinks Ryder is casting some kind of hex on him with his blinkless, ever-lasting stares.

 I always admonish Blake (jokingly) and tell him that Ryder is only looking at him lovingly and that he is just a baby and babies don't have ulterior motives.

Well, I'm starting to think that I was wrong.  Ryder is a total prankster and I'm now convinced that he gets great enjoyment out of F'ing with me. 

I should probably cut to the chase.  That whole sleeping through the night thing that I blogged about a few weeks ago... yeah, not so much.  Ryder was merely toying with my brain (and my sleep patterns).  He slept through the night for two weeks and then BAM, it was over.  He resumed his down at 7:30 p.m. and up at 4 or 4:30 a.m. schedule.  Little booger. 

Once he started waking during the night again, I didn't revert back to feeding him since he had already shown me that he doesn't need a night feed.  Instead, I'd go to his room, re-insert his paci, give him a few belly rubs, and re-start his sound machine.  In response, he'd settle back down for a grand total of 10 or 15 minutes before hollering again.  At that point, I'd curse under my breath, roll over and instruct Blake to "go get the baby."  Blake would shuffle to the nursery in a half-roused state and fetch Ryder.  Once we put Ryder in our bed with us, he would snuggle in like a little angel and sleep until it was time to get him ready for school (7:00 a.m.). 

Bed-sharing is something I swore I'd never do.  I feared that Blake would roll over him or shove him off the bed or that he'd somehow wiggle under the covers and suffocate.  Furthermore, I swore I'd never bed-share for fear that I'd somehow end up with a 25 pound toddler sleeping in my bed a couple years down the road.  (Do toddlers weigh 25 pounds?  I have no clue).  But it's amazing what you'll do when it comes to sleep deprivation and the possibility of a few extra hours of un-interrupted sleep.  Desperate times call for desperate measures. 

Once or twice a week, Ryder will toss in a blissful all-nighter and sleep soundly in his crib until a normal morning hour.  In fact, last night he happened to sleep in his crib from 8:00 p.m. until 7:00 a.m. and I never heard a peep from him.  This all brings me to one conclusion: my child is messing with my mind.  Perhaps he doesn't want me to get too comfortable with one stable routine, so he throws me an occasional bone by randomly (and seldomly) sleeping through the night.  Or perhaps he is messing with me purely for entertainment purposes.  Or... maybe I'm becoming paranoid and delusional as a result of my unpredictable sleep schedule.  Yes, yes- that must be it.

One thing is for sure, Ryder doesn't seem any worse for the wear: