Adam Doesn't Sleep

Help!  I'm so tired.  In the last few weeks, Adam stopped sleeping.  In his twenty months of life, he has slept through the night a few times.  Most commonly he is up once or twice.  For the last week or so, he has averaged five times per night, ranging up to SEVEN times a few nights ago.  Tonight he has already been up four times, and it's 1:30.  He sits up and calls out at the top of his lungs, "Mama!  Mama!"  He keeps calling until you go in and tuck the covers around him again.  It's horrible.  It jolts you out of bed, and there is no restorative sleep.  Just napping until the next scream.  My head hurts.  I'm exhausted.  Why wouldn't you sleep yet at twenty months?  How many months until we sleep again?  After the fourth time per night, you start making bargains...I would double our mortgage if I could just sleep at night. 

Parade Take Two

Well, I did it!  I survived five full days away from home and only cried three times.  I drove through Minneapolis twice, once at 5:00 p.m.  And I took in 30 hours of instruction in how to teach AP Language and Composition.  I told many of you that this week was the week I was dreading.  Now the rest of the summer is...wide open!  Kind of!

So Adam just got up and I retrieved for him his two favorite foods:  chocolate milk or "kok-laht" and cheetos or "nak."  Then I turned on a replay of the parade we watched in real time on Saturday.  He's enthralled.  He's standing by the TV annotating each float as it comes by the camera ("tock!" "vroom vroom!" "cah!" "hi!" "uh-oh!"), shouting, stamping, waving his arms, and wiping his hand across the screen.  This is great.  How do I record this thing for a rainy day?

Parade Etiquette

1. Arrive early and stake out a spot without other children.  Do not arrive late with three kids and squeeze in between two families who are are appropriately spaced.

2. Before the firetrucks roll, line your children up on the curb and explain that eyes should point forward throughout the parade.  Candy in one's peripheral vision belongs to other children.

3.  Do not allow your child to dart diagnally in front of smaller children for the entire parade and then offer the candy to them:  "Here you go."  This is not a favor.  The whole point of a parade is to PICK UP YOUR OWN CANDY.

Sigh.  Despite a grievous breach in etiquette this morning, what will we do with fifty-two Tootsie Rolls, forty-seven Fruities, seventeen suckers, and one white chocolate Kit Kat?  Never mind - scratch the Kit Kat.  It's been removed from the inventory.

Love Is More

Love is saying at 5:30 AM on a weekend, "No, you sleep in today.  I will do cereal and juice duty."

Love is saying, "I'm going to take the kids for a drive so you can have a few minutes to yourself.  No, no arguments.  Just enjoy it."

Love is saying, "You look tired.  I'll finish scraping the peas off the floor and off the dishes.  You get ready for bed now."

How much easier it would be to buy chocolates and send roses!  They're empty wrappers.  Love is more.

The Voices

"Mama, Adam is eating Play-Doh."

"Mama?  Do God and Jesus live on a cloud together?"

"Mama!  Go!  Go!"  [tugging at hand to go outside]

"Mama, Adam gots a scissors."

"Mama, can I have juice for a special treat?"

"Goo!" [alternate pronunciation of juice, used to second his sister's request]

"Mama!  Cahk-uh!" [tugging at hand to get snack]

"Mama, what day is it?"

"Mama, Adam just drawed on the wall."

"Mama, why did you and Daddy buy me a  scooter for my birthday?"

"Mama!  Up!" [wrapping arms around leg and pulling]

"Mama, can I have a fruit snack?"

"Nak!  Nak!"

"Mama, how old are you?"

"Boos!"  [alternate way of requesting that shoes be put on feet to go outside]

"Mama, I don't like THIS kind of mac 'n cheese."

"Cohcaht." [I want chocolate milk].

"I wish we could have hot dogs at every meal."

"Mama, Adam just spilled his milk."

The Flip Flop Party