Heartbreaker

Ryder has super bad allergies and is going on almost 6 months of coughing/boogers/being sick on and off. Surprisingly he has still been sleeping pretty well...with the exception of tonight. It is almost 4am and I've been up with him for an hour. But I can't complain....

I picked up a refill of albuterol cough syrup at the pharmacy to help soothe Ryder's cough at night. When I got home I realized they didn't give me a syringe or anything to administer the syrup and I couldn't find ANY of my other med cups. While I was searching for something to measure the syrup, Ryder distracted me by saying he was hungry. He didn't really have a real dinner so I got him something to eat. We did the normal bedtime routine and he was fast asleep. After watching a movie Jon and I went to bed. Come 3am, Ryder is having a major coughing fit and it wakes me up. The first thing I think is, "Oh crap! I forgot to give him his cough medicine!!!!" I lay there waiting for him to stop coughing and go back to sleep but I hear him open his bedroom door (yes, he finally learned how to open it) and I'm thinking he's going to come walking in our room crying or something...but he doesn't. Instead I hear him making his way down the stairs in the dark. Now I'm curious. So I hear him get downstairs and suddenly the light pounding of his feet on the tile stops. I just laid there thinking, waiting, wondering. I hear nothing for about 5 minutes. Of course I can't just go back to sleep when I know he's down there alone and can unlock and open our front door. I had to use the restroom anyway so I got up, used it, and went downstairs as quietly as possible so that I could spy on him. Well it was so dark I couldn't see anything so I walk over to the couch and I see his tiny silhouette just sitting there. As I get closer I can see that my little Ryder bug is just sitting...patiently...quietly...looking around the room. I sat down next to him and pulled him on my lap and said,

ME: Ryder???

HIM: Hi mom.

ME: Oh honey! Are you coughing too much?

HIM: Uh-huh.

ME: Oh I'm so sorry buddy.

HIM: Sorry mom.

HAHA! Oh my gosh it broke my heart into a thousand pieces. He was just coughing and couldn't sleep and didn't want to wake us up so he just went downstairs to hang out by himself. He begged for yogurt and I thought "why not" so he sat and downed almost a whole pound of yogurt while we watched an episode of Ni-hao Kai-lan. Then he laid down on my lap (keep in mind I'm in my..."undies") and when his face touched my bare leg he sat up, scrunched his face, looked at me and said, "Oww!" HAHAHA! I guess it's time to shave again. I just love him.