The Dark

So, for the past few days, we've had a hard time getting Owen to go to sleep at night. For months we've had a ritual of bathing, changing, feeding, and then putting them to bed. And 95% of the time, it's worked just fine. But over the past few days as soon as we'd close the bedroom door, Owen would start crying. And so we tried everything. Feed him more, change his diaper, let him play because maybe he wasn't tired, but none of those things helped. Last night Kara said, "Hey maybe he doesn't like the darkness." So we turned off the bedroom light but left the hall light on and kept the door open a couple of inches, and it worked perfectly. Then, later on when we were going to bed, we absent-mindedly turned off the hall light. Sure enough, Owen started crying again. The hall light went back on and he fell asleep again. So, for now we'll be leaving the hall light on at night and their bedroom door open a crack. I think Kara's going to look into getting a nightlight. But what's interesting is that, when I went to check on the boys this morning, Owen was laying in his crib and his body was exactly in line with the light coming through the crack in the door. I wonder why this sudden fear has suddenly arisen. Owen just hasn't had much good luck. We were at Uncle Harvey's house last night and they have a new puppy/dog. I think the dog bit Owen's foot, because both of them were just quiet and then Owen had this terrified look on his face and started crying. Then Jack was standing and the dog came over and licked his face and he thought it was hilarious. Anyhow, we'll see what happens with this darkness issue.