In the Night

I was so tired last evening. "Collapse Night" is what I call it when either Jeff or I has a night like that. Fortunately, we don't have them on the same night because if we did, the boys would have to get themselves ready for and into bed...and well...Tobin is just a bit young for that. :)

But seriously, last night over supper, I asked Jeff, "Can I get Tobin and David in bed and then just go to bed myself?" And of course, he said yes. So 8:30 p.m. rolled around, and I was in bed. Wonderful! I just knew I would wake up this morning after a nice long sleep, feeling so refreshed!

Until...

The first interruption was Josiah crawling in bed sometime after 9:00 p.m. and saying, "Every time I see the lightning, I'm afraid it will strike me." It's true, we were having a thunderstorm...and it's true, I wanted to help him feel secure during it...so sure, he could snuggle with me for a little while.

The second and subsequent interruptions are all muddled in my mind because I just wasn't thinking very clearly; but at some point, David was coughing and coughing and needed some cough medicine. At a later point, Josiah was doing the same and needed medicine. (Why couldn't they have coordinated their coughing spells so I could have dosed them up at the same time?) Another memorable event in the night was David calling to me; and when I came to him, he said, "I don't like crocodiles!" (as if I did and was extolling their virtues to him...). I asked him if he had had a dream about crocodiles, and he said yes, so I asked what the crocodiles were doing in his dream, expecting to hear that they were chasing him or biting him or something scary. He said, "Eating the grass." :)

Before that (I think around 11:00 p.m.) Tobin started crying hard, which is so completely unlike him because I normally don't hear a peep out of him for about 12 hours straight in the night. So I went into his room and found that the dear boy had rolled over from back to tummy (only his second time accomplishing that feat) and WAS NOT HAPPY ABOUT IT. He couldn't suck his thumb in that position, and he couldn't return himself to his normal back position, so he needed help. Well, needless to say, I was glad to do it; and as soon as I picked him up, he fell asleep in my arms and I savored the heaviness of his sleepy body. (It somehow feels different than when he's awake and alert and trying to take in everything around him.) Unfortunately, he was wakeful and restless at some point after that, so I ended up feeding him in the night, which I haven't done for weeks and weeks.

After some of these interruptions, it took me a while to go back to sleep, so all in all, it was a very unrestful night for me; and the 10 and 1/2 hours of solid sleep that I expected suddenly dissolved in a poof of motherly responsibility. Amazingly and thankfully, I actually felt pretty good when I got up this morning, and it's been a great day!

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And now some notes from the day:

It happened again. While I was driving by myself (did you catch that? BY MYSELF!...on my way out the door, my mother, who was babysitting the boys, said, "Enjoy your time alone!" and I sure did!) into town today to give blood, I was listening to the local country music station and heard a song that made me laugh and cry and resolve--again--to appreciate the simple things in each day of life. The song was "Don't Blink" by Kenny Chesney, and it was my first time hearing it. The music video is here. Is it just me, or is it impossible to watch this without getting all choked up? ;)

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Tonight we celebrated Josiah's family night. He chose for our dinner menu tri-colored spiral pasta with butter and parmesan cheese and, although he didn't ask for this, I threw in some home-canned peaches and he was thrilled (and literally ate the whole quart himself, with the exception of maybe 2 bites that David had). Fortunately for Jeff and I, we had some other left-overs from the refrigerator to have because we didn't have any peaches to fill up our tummies. :)

The entertainment of the evening was toasting marshmallows in our woodstove. It's been so warm that we haven't needed any fire in it for a few days, but tonight was a good opportunity to burn some trash and have enough fire for the marshmallows. Josiah toasted and ate 3 marshmallows--one all by itself and the other two squished between graham crackers. I didn't have any Hershey bars or we would have had the yumminess of smores without the messiness of camping out! The marshmallows were really good though, and I can speak from experience on that one. :) The first taste of my first (yes, I had more than one) toasted marshmallow took me back to being a girl...our family grilling on a real charcoal grill...using the coals at the end of the evening for marshmallows...my brother David and I running around the yard with toasted marshmallows on our sticks to cool them down before we popped them in our mouths so we didn't burn our tongues. Happy memories...

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Speaking of my brother David, tomorrow is his 34th birthday, so we're off to Pennsylvania for a day trip to celebrate together. I cannot even remember the last time I was actually with him for his birthday. Josiah and David, when they realized that tomorrow is THE DAY, were yelling, "The cousins, the cousins!" tonight. I'm eager to show off little Tobin to his uncle and aunt, since they've never seen him yet. Should be a fun day...