Trials and Joy with a 17 month old...

Tonight was a very stressful night. It seems when Nate is not around to help put Tristan to bed, Tristan doesn't do as well going to bed. Nate's "job" is reading bedtime stories to Tristan, and even if I try to and Nate is around, he doesn't want me, he wants his daddy. However, Nate is now going to a men's Bible study on Sunday nights at 6:30, so he leaves about 6:15. Tristan and I sat down to eat dinner right after Nate left. Once Tristan started playing with his food instead of eating, I took it away to start cleaning up. He happily got down (with my help) from his high chair, but instantly started screaming that he wanted more. I knew he wasn't hungry anymore, so I just cleaned up, the whole time Tristan is throwing a temper tantrum. He wants "juice" but all I would give him was his milk...but no, he didn't want that. Crying some more. Time to take a bath, screaming child, not going well. He screamed as I took off his diaper, and calmed down just enough to say "trash" and contently throw it away, then started the crying again. I even put bubbles in his water, which he usually loves, but this time, he didn't care and screamed in the water. So, I would take him out, and he would reach for the water and cry "bubbles!" I would put him back in and he would scream trying to get out, and once again, I would take him out only to have him scream "bubbles!" By this time, I'm just ready for him to go to bed! So, we go to his room to put on our pj's and he is crying "bubbles" the whole time. I finally get his pj's on and he calms down when I say it is time to read. Funny thing, he picks out a Precious Moments book called "Caring". It's not a very exciting book, has verses about caring on the pages. But we read that book seven times before I made him get another book! Any other book, one time was enough, but for some reason, he wanted to read that one book seven times :) Anyways, we go brush our teeth, turn out our lights and I lay him in bed, only to have him start crying and crawling out of bed. I decided since our routine was a little off without Nate here that I would rock him a while. While I rocked him, I sang some songs and he watched me intently the whole time. After a few songs, I asked "Are you ready for bed?" and he shook his head no, so I asked "Do you want me to sing some more?" and he signed "more". Can't say no to that! So, after a few more songs, I stopped to see what he would do, and he says "sing" (actually, "si..." but I understood :), so I sang some more. After a few more songs, I asked again "Is it time for night-night?" and he looked at me and said "night-night". I put him in bed, he rolled over with his pillow and closed his eyes, and I haven't heard from him since. Exhausting night, but precious boy. Oh, the trials...and joys...of having kids!