In training - Posted by Kim

POSTED BY: KIM

This morning, I woke up at 4am (San Diego Time) and logged into Skype to catch Rich and Owen before they turned in for the night. Rich had just finished dinner and Owen was being entertained by Grandpa. Occasionally, I heard cooing but nothing that would indicate distress on Owen's or Grandpa's part. So, this meant they were both content.

About an hour and a half later, Rich said he was going to put Owen to bed. I expected this to be quick because Owen usually falls asleep being carried around, so I waited...but for the next 30 minutes, all I could hear was crying. It was heart wrenching. But Grandma came to the phone and explained that Owen's okay (he's not hurt, hungry or in pain), Rich is just trying to put him to bed but he's resisting. So, I felt better about it and told her I'm going back to bed. Before I turned off the computer, I sent Rich an email asking if Owen was okay and if he was successful in getting Owen to fall asleep and this was the response I woke up this morning:

Owen is fine. I don't know how much you heard, but he cried for quite a while (at least half an hour). When he realized I wasn't going to pick him up, he stopped crying all of a sudden. Then he smiled - maybe he was changing his strategy to get me to pick him up - and he played on the bed a little bit, then fell asleep because he was so exhausted.

I think we tried to get him to go to bed too early - around 8:30 - and he wasn't ready even though he was totally exhausted. So he struggled to stay awake and ended up just crying even when he was being held. So I just put him on the bed and refused to pick him up. He screamed for a while but eventually realized it wasn't going to work. Hopefully he won't hold a grudge. Before he fell asleep, he was smiling and laughing and seemed happy. Hopefully tomorrow night he won't scream for so long if I put him down without carrying him around.

As you can see, Owen already has us (even from this distance, I'm already trained to do whatever Owen wants when he returns) trained to do his bidding...so Rich is trying to train him. I'm glad Rich is doing it. Because I don't know if I could resist Owen. He's pathetic when he's crying and he's totally adorable when he smiles. Either way, he's irresistible.