This Domestic Goddess needs your help (plea appears at bottom of post!)

So Guys' Night went swimmingly! I made chili cheese dip, got some Fritos, tortilla chips and Chex Mix, made some chocolate chip cookies (just the refrigerated dough you buy at the store) and had it all set out for the guys when they returned from seeing "Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny" (by the way, a hilarious movie--we saw it with LilCherie and her hubby about a week ago, so it was the second time for J. and R. They said it was still hilarious even on second viewing).

You would have thought I'd spent the whole day slaving over a stove the way the guys reacted when they got home. They were so excited just to have a few snacks! J. was very appreciative and thanked me many times that night and the next day. I played one round of Guitar Hero II with the guys, then went into the bedroom and read magazines in order to give the guys some time to be just guys. I was kind of amazed to listen to them as they interacted "in the wild" with each other. It was weird because a lot of their communication is really just sounds. A lot of gutteral "Ho!"s in response to something exciting happening on the video game, a lot of laughing, a lot of sounds of dismay when something bad happened on the video game, some other miscellaneous noises that must have had some kind of context but I wasn't aware of what it was since I was in the other room. It was an interesting observation, really. Anyway, everything went well until about midnight, when Bubba woke up crying and would only allow J. to comfort him; in the end, Bubba and I ended up sleeping together. But I tried to handle it and I know J. realized that.

The next morning, I continued in my Domestic Goddess role by starting the day with a bath for Bubba and then actually doing some enriching activities with Bubba while J. worked until noon. We painted pictures and sprinkled salt over them for the tactile experience as well as the cool effect once it dried, and then we cut out some cookies, sprinkled colored sugar over them and popped them in the oven, and then ate some of our creations. He had a great time with the salt and the sugar. At one point, when I wasn't looking, he dumped out all the green sugar and stuffed a huge handful in his mouth. He was green from his nose to his neck and his hands were just a mess. I have to say it was pretty cute to see him smiling at me, saying "Yum!!" with green all around his mouth and in his teeth.

So....that night was Girls' Night at my house. Unfortunately, our friend H. couldn't make it, so it was just LilCherie and me. We had a great time, however, and got started making some inventory to eventually sell on snicklesnackle.com. I didn't notice a huge behavior change in J.--he was still somewhat sullen. Or at least it seemed that way to me. Maybe that's just how he is when he's trying to entertain himself, who knows. But he wasn't outright irritable, and he did do the lion's share of Bubba duties so that LilCherie and I could cut loose. We both ended up trying to deal with Bubba at 3:30 a.m.--I was still up, J. had been asleep for a couple hours or so. All in all, a very good night.

Sunday was also a really nice, relaxed day. We started the day with cinnamon rolls, coffee and LilCherie's company. After she left, we packed up and went to Target and the mall, where we got a good chunk of Christmas shopping done as well as some general household items we needed. Bubba got to ride on the carousel, so he was happy. Unfortunately, he fell asleep on the way home--a 20-minute ride--and then would not take a nap for the rest of the day. In general, though, he was good natured for most of the day. J. and Bubba and I spend the afternoon playing WITHOUT THE TV ON. This is a major step for J., and hugely relaxing for me. Then J. took a long nap (while I did the laundry that J. said he would do since I still have this stent in...the pain meds must be mellowing me out because I was only mildly annoyed at this) and I watched Bubba for awhile, tried to put him to bed and then woke J. up to deal with it when Bubba got hysterical.

So that leads us to an issue I wanted to bring up with my vast legions of readers. We are having some major sleeping issues with Bubba. He is in a toddler bed and has been since summer. For the first month or two, he went down like a champ and slept great all night. Lately, over the past month or so, his sleeping has swiftly degenerated to the point where he once again screams, cries, and escapes his bed multiple times before he finally goes to sleep, sometimes just exhausted after crying, sometimes requiring rocking or a backrub until he drifts off.

That wouldn't be so bad, but he is also waking up two, three, four times a night. It starts around midnight. He wakes up crying, stumbles out into the hallway and tries to get in bed with J. For awhile, J. was letting him do that, and Bubba would then sleep all night with J. For about two weeks, however, we've been trying to break this cycle and make Bubba sleep in his own bed. He wakes up crying, we put him back in his bed and try to soothe him to sleep. One of two things happens: he gets hysterical to the point where we have to put him in our bed or even let him come out into the living room for awhile; or he will fall back asleep and wake up a half an hour later and we go through the same thing. We've been trying to be firm about putting him back in his bed no matter how many times he awakens, thinking that eventually he will learn that if he gets up and cries he still ends up in his bed. But after we've placed him back in bed at least 12 times and he's crying so hard he is about to throw up, we cave in. We just cannot take it.

There have been no major changes in his routine or in our lives. The cat died, but Bubba didn't even notice for two weeks, then asked about him once and after I said he had died Bubba never brought it up again--plus, the sleeping issues began before Lorenzo passed away.

We are wondering: Does Bubba just want to be with Daddy? Is there something scaring Bubba in his own room? Does he want a "real" bed instead of the toddler bed? How do we get him to go to sleep and stay asleep? How do we handle it when he wakes up crying and demanding to get in bed with Daddy without making Bubba so hysterical that he can't calm down? In short--help!