Parenthood: Week 450 – Buffy & Ethan

As Ethan is going to bed, sometimes he asks if he can "sleep somewhere else." This means that he wants to sleep in my bed. Since he goes to sleep a couple of hours before me, and more often than not, he goes to sleep pretty quickly after settling in my bed, I don't mind. However, at some point in the night, I will move him to his bed.

This happened the other night. As I was getting ready for bed, I picked up Ethan to carry him to his room as he slept. I opened the door and found Buffy lying on her side, completely asleep on Ethan's bed. Maybe, she decided to keep Ollie company, who shares a room with Ethan. Maybe, she liked the scent of Ethan and wanted to snuggle up into his covers, or maybe she had settled there because it was a bed, like hers, that was close to the ground.

I awkwardly put Ethan in the top corners of the bed so that he wouldn't bother Buffy. Then, I carefully picked up Buffy and placed her on my bed. I went back, rearranged Ethan on his bed, and put the covers over his body.

*****

I figured that Ethan would catch up. He was going slowly around our neighborhood on his scooter. It had been a while since he had used his scooter, and he was stubbornly trying to hold a Lego Mini-figure, which was hindering his progress. I tried to move Buffy ahead of Ethan, but she refused.

Buffy is a small dog; she always loses in a game of tug between her and me, though I am cautious not to pull her hard unless she is in danger. She's older, and while I sometimes push her to go on a long walk, I try to take my cues from her. Sometimes she wants to go for a shorter walk and head home, and more often than not, I let her take the lead.

Buffy kept looking back at Ethan and refusing to go forward. I walked back to Ethan, and held his handlebars, and started pulling him along. At this moment, I felt Buffy's leash go limp, and she started strolling along with us. As soon as Ethan stopped, she stopped.

There are times on walks when she doesn't seem to notice or care about the boys' pace, but on this walk, she felt it was important to keep her pack together.

In the past, Ethan has tried to ride Buffy like a horse, he has tried to push Buffy off the couch, and he has yelled at Buffy to wake her up while she was napping.  In the most challenging times of Ethan's sleep training journey, while Ethan cried loudly, I remember Buffy groaning loudly and leaving our room to go downstairs and try to get some sleep.

This morning, Ethan got up early. After I fed him breakfast, he wanted to go upstairs. I told him to be quiet because everyone else was still sleeping. Ethan quietly walked over to Ollie and kissed him while he slept. Then hearing Lucas crying, he went over to his room to say good morning.

Buffy noticing the movement, slowly lifted her body out of her bed and stretched. Ethan went over to her, gently petted her, and said, "Hi, Buffy!" He walked closely next to her as she walked out of the room. As she went down the stairs, Ethan said, "bye, Buffy."

I'll never fully know what Buffy means to Ethan and what Ethan means to Buffy, but I have seen in moments that they see each other as family, and continue to share a life with and for each other.