Revolving Beds and the Beatles

Last night we played revolving beds.

Mama had a sore throat and a cough and was sleeping in the office. HH slept in my bed and I tossed and turned all night as he squirmed around and stretched his legs, kicked me in the groin, sniffled a good bit and now and then rubbed his hand on my beard. He likes to do that, rubbing my beard. It must be comforting. Perhaps he remembers the feel of it from long ago as a baby or perhaps he just wants to know Papa is close by. He can’t explain it – I’ve asked him. Last night I was prey to the full range of his nighttime moves.

I discovered him in bed with me at about midnight. I felt something jab me and I looked over and there he was. Under the covers curled up beside me with his eyes wide open. And then he started to cry. He had an earache and he was in pain. He wanted Papa to give him something to make it go away. So I got up and started routing through the medicine box but there was nothing, only a nearly expired box of infant suppositories we had purchased some time back when he was ill with something. But he was so uncomfortable that it was worth giving them a shot. Well, he would have nothing to do with it. He decided his earache was better. ”No thank you” he said over and over, “No thank you.” But he wasn’t quite ready to go back to sleep, so I held him in the arm chair for a while until he started to show signs of approaching sleep and tried to carry him to bed. Again, he would have nothing to do with it. I finally convinced him to get back into bed with me and read.

I had recently unearthed my Beatles Anthology book – a massive volume of photographs and interviews with the (then) three remaining Beatles. I had been reading it for the last few days, taking a sentimental journey back to my own very early years and remembering what a huge impact these four men had had on my life. HH found the Sgt. Pepper’s uniforms amusing and also the stills from the “Hard Day’s Night” movie. I tried to explain to him who these four people were and how important they had been to the music scene in their day. I take for granted that just about everyone knows about the Beatles but of course HH would have no idea who they were. He has been to concerts and since I play the guitar just about every day, he knows about that and about music, so I tried to weave a story that would make sense to him. This is a subject we will be returning to.

We probably spent about thirty minutes looking at pictures and talking before I was just too tired to go on. He too settled down and let me turn off the light and eventually he fell asleep. It’s just about time to wake him and Mama – they both need to go to the doctor this morning and if I don’t get a good night’s sleep soon – so will I.