the glory that is sleep

Have I mentioned how much I love my life now that I’m sleeping?! I slept Friday night and Saturday night and Sunday night. I slept fairly well last night, although there was some of the being woken up. Sleep totally changes my outlook: E is more adorable, I’m happier, K is more agreeable. Everything is better. I feel like I’ve missed so much of their short lives complaining about no sleep and getting no sleep and trying to find a chance to get some sleep. Hell, if it’d been this easy all along, I’d have had no qualms at all about going back to work. Fact is, I can’t write a sermon, hold a meeting, even drive a damn car, when I’m as sleep-deprived as I’ve been. It is more of the sleeplessness that has kept me from living a fuller life than the having of small children (although apparently since I’ve been given little humans who need little sleep, the two go hand in hand for me).

what a big girl

K dressed herself completely this morning. Finally, at 4 years, 10 months old. She hasn’t really been able to do it until now because of her socks (she’s had shirts and sweaters and pants down pat for a good while now). I had gotten cheapo socks at Target which are too tight. But when I got the nicer socks at The Children’s Place, she immediately discovered that she could “do it myself, mama!” Last night, I had her lay out her clothes on the other twin bed in hopes that she would dress herself in the morning. And sure enough, this morning she did that very thing.

I so very much want to raise independent children. Just like being able to feed themselves and bathe themselves and being potty trained, being able to dress themselves is yet another step in that direction.

Tuesday

Good thing I’ve gotten lots of sleep lately. T was gone overnight last night, so I’m here by myself with the children. E woke up at 6:30 saying “GO, GO!” which is his word for “I want to get down out of this bed and go play in the den. NOW!” So, I’m on my third load of laundry (I very well may actually catch up with laundry today — yippee!) and have cleaned my bathroom and fed two of us breakfast and taken a shower and gotten dressed myself. Amazing what you can get done with some sleep (even though it was spotty last night, it wasn’t awful) and being up early.

Thank goodness that last tooth finally broke through in E’s head! We’ve done so much better in the sleep category since I found that little white cusp poking through his upper gums last Thursday or Friday. Even though the teeth aren’t all fully in, they have all now broken through, so I do hope that our sleeping pattern can return to a somewhat normal routine. He must be the longest teether on record. He’s been cutting these lateral incisors for at least 10 weeks. Now if we can just get his poopy diapers to return to normal.

the way she phrases things

K: “Mom, can you walk me into preschool this morning, ’cause I’m not liking the drive through (the drop off option our preschool offers) these days?”