Snugglers

Every night both Gavin and Jonah need some "snuggle time" before they claim they can settle down and frankly, I'm happy to oblige.  But, for the record I want to remember how completely opposite these two are in terms of how they snuggle.

The routine is to usually snuggle with Jonah first after reading him a book or having him read to me.  Gavin is in his room during this time reading to himself.  They both prefer this particular order of snuggling, which makes things oh, so much easier.  After reading, Jonah starts to get situated and it's usually 50/50 if he'll get comfy on his belly or his back. But he does not want me to touch him and will even move my hand away if I lay it on any part of his body, he simply wants the comfort of knowing  I am there.  On the rare occasion he will snuggle my arm for a few moments...seconds really.  He says he gets too hot, which I can understand, so I give him some space because leaving is not an option.  I usually lay on my back sort of next to him...sometimes barely touching, sometimes we're not touching at all.  Then he'll continue to move around, pulling the duvet up, then off, sometimes asking if he can take his shirt off, then more moving until I tell him to stop.  After about 3-5 minutes of this he's settled and off to sleep. I kiss him goodnight, tell him I love him and that I'll see him in the morning.  "Love you too" he says and "can you please shut the closet doors".

Then Gavin gets his turn.  He lifts his duvet for me to climb in to the right side of the bed, so that he can stay next to the wall.  Then he covers us and snuggles right into me.  My arms are wrapped around him and he lays his head right into my shoulder and chest while he feels the coolness of the back side of my arms.  I told him a story about when we were in CA for a family reunion several years ago.  He was two years old (almost three) and when we travelled he was obsessively attached to Jared.  On this particular night Jared was going off a little before bedtime to hang out with his brothers and Gavin was beyond being consoled.  So I got 12 month old Jonah down and went and laid down by Gavin who of course was still crying.  It wasn't until I finally took my arm out of the long sleeve shirt I was wearing and laid it over his belly for some prime feeling, that he stopped crying.  The retelling of this of course made him laugh, especially because he was now almost 9 years old and still doing the same thing to my cool arm at that very moment. And unlike Jonah when I say good night he grabs me tight and asks me to stay a little longer.  When I finally make it out, there is a game of "love you the most" back and forth until he can no longer hear me whisper "no, I love you the most"!

I feel no preference for one kind of snuggling or another because in their own way they both still need me and that's what matters.