What's the word?

What should we call him? (aside from this goofy grin he has going on...)

Passionate? Sensitive? Unyielding? Tenacious? I can think of more than a few words that sound "nice." But in the grand scheme of things, I like to just say Stubborn.

Who can tell that I just got finished putting Declan to bed? So my mood is far from calm, but the fact that I was here alone tonight with all three kids at bedtime, justifies that. Right?

So I got Isabella down, then Quinn, and I paced for a bit trying to decide what to do with the D-man. We're sticking to our guns about him going to sleep in his crib. I just had to decide how much I was willing to do, knowing that there were two other sleeping children--who could possibly be awakened by his (what's the word?) DISTINCT voice.

So I took him up to bed, nice and calm, laid him in his crib, and sat in the rocker beside the bed. He laid there for a bit and then came to the end of the crib so he could see me "uppy mommy, uppy" as he tried to scale the side of the crib. So I moved to the floor in front of his crib so that I would be in his sight. (I know, I know, but I am not okay with crying it out...so this is my attempt at "modified crying it out.") It was great though. He tossed and turned, but was quiet. No crying, no fussing even. And guess what? Quinn still woke up. I tried to just let her fuss a bit, but I knew she was ready to eat. He was ( ) that close to falling asleep. Seriously!!! So I left to get her. Brought her back upstairs, sat back down on the floor, nursing Quinn, and Declan pressed his body against the crib, stuck out his arm, and said "hand mommy." I really wish I had my camera up there...it was a 'melting' moment. Anyway, this went on until Quinn was totally unimpressed with sitting on the floor in a dark room. So I took her downstairs, put her in the swing, meanwhile Declan is now crying upstairs in that DISTINCT voice. So I go back up, lay him down, and just stand there 'shushing' him (as he's saying "what? what? what mommy?" So I stopped 'shushing' him...clearly he thought I was trying to teach him a new language that he couldn't quite grasp. And yes, he fell asleep. Yes, it took an hour--ugh!
But he's asleep, and at 10:30 pm that's all I really care about. So let's hope for maybe cutting this time in half tomorrow night okay? And it is totally Ryan's turn.