I have come to a revelation in the difference between adults and toddlers in terms of falling asleep.

To illustrate, picture going to bed. What do you do? First off, of course, there's all the rigamarole of brushing your teeth and getting ready, but I mean the very basics, after you've turned off the light. You climb into the bed, lie down, pull up the covers, and ...

.. you close your eyes!

Yes, that's the difference. Toddlers skip this crucial step. And that's why it takes my 17-month-old so dang long to fall asleep each night!

Is it against any sort of legal or ethical codes to Super Glue little eyelids?

Yeah, thought so. Sigh. Maybe just Elmer's?

Now imagine how not to fall asleep, supposing some giant had cruelly placed you into a bedroom and snuggled you close in the bed, trying to convince you to give in and lower your defenses with sinister back rubs and a warm drink. You might keep your eyes strained toward any movement of interest, refuse to lie down in case your body took that as a sign to relax, squirm and kick the wall to keep the adrenaline pumping, screech and sing to keep your mind active, and when the giant was distracted (say, while typing a blog post), you might attempt a stealthy crawl for freedom.

There's Mikko right now, fighting hard at 1:23 a.m.

Toddlers act like sleep is a surrender, a capitulation, rather than a goal to be sought.

Silly toddlers. Don't they know how much they'll miss sleep when they're our age?


Image courtesy of Dez Pain on sxc.hu