Snippets
Yesterday Gleek’s dreams came true. There was a horse in our cul de sac. An actual horse! I was informed in exclamatory phrases. Such a wonder couldn’t go unobserved, so we walked out to visit the horse. It belonged to a neighbor we know fairly well, so Gleek was invited to take a short ride, but only if she would go get her shoes on. Gleek came flying over to me, eyes bright to ask my permission. I assented and Gleek gushed “I get to ride a horse! I can almost taste my chance!”
Sunday night Link was having trouble settling into bed. I was watching a movie, and so I was grouchy at the repetitive interruptions. Finally he seemed to settle, or at least stopped bugging me. When my movie was over I discovered that he’d finally fallen asleep on the front room couch. I decided to let him sleep there rather than trying to carry 70+ lbs of boy upstairs into into a top bunk. When he woke up yesterday morning he was so pleased he got to sleep on the couch that he announced it to all the other kids. Then yesterday evening I left Kiki and Link behind while I drove a friend home. When Gleek, Patches, and I walked back in the house both Kiki and Link were curled up on the couch pretending to be asleep. Since Gleek was actually drowsy from the car ride I carried her to bed first. Then I carried the half asleep Link up and into his bed. He was awake enough to help some, fortunately. Then I came back for Kiki. She was trying not to smile and give away the fact that she was awake. I picked her up and carried her as best I could. She helped while still pretending to be asleep. I came back downstairs to discover Patches on the couch pretending to be asleep. Everyone else had been carried to bed, he wanted to be carried too. I obliged. The four kids continued to pretend to be asleep until they actually were. If only bedtime could always be so easy.
This summer Patches is often the first one of us awake. Once he is awake I have to be too, not because he’ll misbehave, but because he insists. He gets right in my face and says “Mom! Wake up! It’s Day!” as if daylight should banish sleep permanently. This attitude toward daylight also means I have trouble putting him to bed before dark. This is something of a problem during the summer. He seems finally to have adapted to sleeping in longer. Unfortunately he’s done so just in time for me to start shifting all our sleep schedules earlier in an attempt to prepare for school.