Getting Benjamin To Sleep

I have now been in Honolulu for over one week. There's so much to say it's sort of ridiculous as this week has been nothing short of incredible. While there's so much to say about my Hawaiian adventures, I'm going to start by talking about one of my new best friends in the world: Benjamin Dworkin. He's also making me very excited to meet my newborn niece and nephew Sara and Jeremy.

Any way, before I tell the story of how I got Benjamin to sleep, let me ask you something: did you know that just about every single thing is so exciting that it's important to point to it and excitedly call it either "bah" or "dah"? I didn't realize this, but Benjamin is helping me to discover how everything is pretty exciting. And watching him with Dworkin (Jon) is teaching me a lot about myself. But here's the story of how I got him to go to sleep (I know it's long but I love talking about him, so here goes):

When Jon and Layla picked me up on Wailae Avenue near my house, we were hoping that Benjamin would nap the entire two hour drive to the North Shore. But unfortunately it seems that the poor boy was so tired he simply couldn't fall asleep. At least not in his car seat. Jon tried everything, sitting in the back seat. Then Layla tried. Then I tried. Then Jon tried. The only thing that happened was a continual stream of crying at the top of his lungs. Even singing, which normally works for Bejamin was not working (he is soooo musical by the way). Normally he loves music so much that he often sings himself to sleep with a careful arrangement of "bah dah bah dah" in some kind of harmony and a rhythmic moving up of his hand, until he's finally sleeping. This did not happen yesterday. It was becoming painful to listen to. I felt bad that I hadn't helped but Jon said, "Hey man, you did as good as any one could have done which I guess is not saying much because there really isn't any thing that can be done."

SUCCESS!
But then after we parked the car, I tried again. This time, while the door was open,
before I got in the car, I made a huge yawn and a huge yawning motion with my body. Benjamin was so mesmerized by this, that he forgot to cry. i walked into the car and sat next to him and yawned a few times. He just stared at me, fascinated by my yawning. It was interesting. I wasn't telling him to calm down. I was just showing him how tired I was. I then draped my right arm in front of him and kept making smacking noises with my lips. Almost like I wanted to suck on something (which the breast lover that he is, I think he could relate to). He just kept staring. I yawned more. And smacked my lips more. And he just kept watching me. Soon I started to lightly sing "The Rainbow Connection" and every time I saw that he was getting a little into it, I started to fade out my voice, like I was drifting to sleep. I pretended that I couldn't finish the sentence, and I'd close my eyes and smack my lips again. And then I'd open them again and yawn. And this went on for several minutes. And as it did, he seemed to be calming his mind and his body and his eyes would look softer and softer. Until eventually his lids began to look heavy. I'd yawn again and he'd stare at me yawning, trying to maintain his interest but being gently persuaded by his eyes to just rest. Very, very slowly this went on until finally his eyes were relaxed and he was sleeping gently. He moved his head to the side and he started breathing in his sleep. He kept almost waking with little shudders coming from his body, and I kept making light yawning sounds. And soon he was more and more relaxed in his sleep. Layla turned to me and I gave her a thumbs up and she gave a big smile full of maternal gratitude.


On the way back, after what may have been some of the best snorkeling that the world has to offer (omg! it was incredible and soooo peaceful) I sat with Benjamin again. Once again, it was really difficult. I had a ball that I gave him that he kept throwing in my face. That would calm him down from crying but he was still very much awake. Layla said, "why not play the yawning game?" And I tried it slowly. And once again began to sing to him through my yawns. And this time, rather than drift off so quickly he started dancing to my singing. Dancing with his hand, shaking it up and down in the air. I would close my eyes and open them just a tad and all I could see was Benjamin staring at me with his hand in a perfect rhythm: up, down. up, down. up, down. I kept trying not to laugh. Eventually he just fell asleep. I once again gave the thumbs up to Layla. Layla signaled to Jon that the boy was asleep and Jon, who I had just mentioned something about Shamanism to smiled and said, "you know, there might be something concrete to this Shamanism thing."

It was actually so calming for me. Just sitting there watching this small child with his very very active mind, slow himself down, unwind, and allow himself to finally drift off. It helped me too. I think I'm in love. :-)