Ever since Tony has been able to get out of bed on his own, we have had a small mattress on the floor of our room for him to sleep in, should he come in during the night. He knows that if he wakes up and gets a little scared of the shadows or things that go bump in the night, that mattress in our room was there for him.
He hasn’t used it in the last eight or nine days or so, mostly because he has shown to us he can safely sleep on the top bunk of his bunk beds.
As I was cleaning up today, I asked Tony if he wanted us to keep that mattress on the floor for him.
“No Mommy, I’m done with that,” he told me with a sweep of his hand. “I’m five years old now.”
I was very glad to get out of our room as we had been tripping over it for the last three years or so, but at the same time, I was a bit sadden. My little boy is growing up. He just took another tiny step away from needing me, and it hurts.
But I believe that he’ll be in again, probably right after we get back from the train trip, when he is readjusting to his own room and his own bed. At least I hope he comes in to sleep on the floor of our room. I don’t mind tripping over that mattress if it means that Tony will say he needs our presence and our comfort in the middle of the night.
