Four Crying Out Loud

I have never been opposed to sharing my space in the bed.  In fact, when my husband and I were younger, We would drift off to sleep locked in one another's arms and remain that way until dawn's early light.  New baby?  No problem, we would just scoot over and make room for him.  Co-sleeping sounded glorious; not to mention healthy for the baby.  We co-slept our lives and quality sleep away until the baby was 5.  We decided we'd had enough crooked necks and mule kicks to last us a lifetime, no matter how much we loved him. We kicked him out.  But not without the Bed Fairy. We told him that every night that he slept in his own bed, the bed fairy would swoop down, gently lift his pillow and place a small gift under it.  Some nights we were prepared for the placing of the gift.  We were armed with matchbox cars, army men, tootsie pops, or stickers.  Other nights, we failed miserably.  In the morning, after we realized he had slept in his own bed, we were scrambling to produ

My sister has one child.  A five year old boy.  He is nothing less than a prince.  If she could carry him around on a pillow and get away with it, she would.  I am pretty sure she was still spoon feeding him last year. We just went on vacation with them.  She sent me money ahead of time to get groceries for them.  She is horrified by our diet of frozen PB&J sandwiches and partially hydrogenated soybean oil, so I asked her to send me a specific list of what she wanted.  I already knew what it would look like; flaxseed, quinoa, organic everything, and liquor. I prepared to brace myself for a week with the overbearing, label-reading tyrant.  I kept my distance in the morning, allowing her ample time in the kitchen to prepare hot breakfasts with slices of fresh fruit for the little prince.  She scoffed when I ripped open our pre-packaged bowls of cereal, dumped a shot of milk and a plastic spoon in them and called out "Breakfast!" down the hallway.  She made going to th