He did it! Josiah slept in his tent last night. I am so amazed.  Rick and I went out for a long overdue date night. When we returned, Josiah was sitting, very close to the babysitter, on the couch. Actually, he was literally draped all over her. He was very happy, very content to lay there with his head practically in her lap.

When the babysitter left, I took Josiah to his bedroom. I told him he was going to GET to sleep in his new tent bed, as if saying it with enthusiasm and saying it just once was all it was going to take. I really anticipated a battle. I had a strong feeling he was going to fight even crawling up into the tent bed. I thought for sure he would thrash about and struggle to get away.

I was wrong.

I helped Josiah up in the tent, all the while excitedly talking about how cool it was. Again, trying to convince him this was amazing stuff. I pointed out all the stars on his ceiling that were glowing in the dark. He had only a few up there initially. Chandler put many more up the other day and I added the rest yesterday afternoon. He now has a glowing celestial sky scape just above his head.

I tried to climb in the tent with Josiah. I quickly realized it wasn’t working well. With the twin mattress inside the tent, the area inside is smaller than one would think. Since Josiah wasn’t fussing at all, I left him inside, with 2 flaps unzipped and open. I planted myself very close by on his bean bag chair, watching guard should he choose to bolt.

It took a while for Josiah to get drowsy. A long while actually. But he stayed in his tent the entire time and eventually, he did fall asleep. I couldn’t believe it actually. We had tried this whole tent thing weeks ago with Josiah. He wanted NOTHING to do with it then. We ended up pulling the entire thing, the tent with the mattress enclosed, onto the floor near his bed. We put another twin mattress on his bed frame. He slept there.

And then he became ill. It was very shortly after we attempted to introduce the tent initially, that Josiah ended up in the hospital. So, the tent sat in the corner of his room. When Josiah came home from the hospital, he still slept in his tent-less bed. Most nights, he would wake in the night and crawl in between Rick and me in our bed.

And then, last night, just like that, Josiah slept in his tent bed. It was like he had been doing it all along. He slept there all night. He never woke up. He never crawled in between us in our bed.

Might be time to break out the marshmallows, chocolate bars and graham crackers.

Tonight, I’m building a campfire.