No Joke

I was up half the night last night.  Let's take a walk through it, shall we?  I should have known things would not go well when Alex didn't go right to sleep at bedtime.  Granted part of that problem was that Grace insisted on being the one to put him down herself rather than just letting me do my regular routine with him, but still.  Even after I got him back out, let him play around for a little bit, and put him BACK down -- he still fussed for a few minutes before finally falling asleep which is never a good sign.

Fast forward a few hours later and Scott and I were right about to get started on THIS mess -- about 8 loads worth of {clean} laundry that have been sitting in baskets in the family room since Sunday just waiting for someone to take pity on them and fold them and put them away. 

We are pathetic.  After dumping EVERYTHING on the floor but the whites, we proceeded to organize things into baskets by category -- our clothes, boy clothes, and {the winner} girl clothes.  Cue Alex.  Around 11 o'clock I heard the Lover Boy start to cry.  Poor little lamb did NOT sound happy, so eventually I caved and went to get him even though it was late and I hadn't started folding anything yet.  Cue Sophie.  As I was getting Alex out of his crib, Sophie decided to wake up and join the party.  Her asthma has been acting up with the weather change for the season and she needed to have another breathing treatment.  Awesome!  Alex was a mess for the next 20 minutes and Sophie refused to go back up after the nebulizer was done.  After much coercing they finally went back to bed and we managed to finish up all of our clothes before deciding it was almost midnight and the kids' clothes would just have to wait.

Cue Grace.  As we were putting our clothes away in our room, Grace woke up before Scott had a chance to move her to her room for the night.  Not good.  After seeing on the clock that it was "almost the middle of the night," she excitedly waited for the clock to strike twelve and her coach to turn back into a pumpkin.  Hahahaha.  Just kidding.  But cue Jane.  As Grace was staring at the digital clock waiting for those numbers to change, Jane came shuffling into our room and climbed right into bed.  Because that's what she does.  Only it's usually at the 2 AM mark.  Grace lovingly tucked her in and snuggled up to her and told her "only 3 more minutes until it's the middle of the night!"  At this point I realized I was in for a long night.

I knew Scott had to get up early this morning and he hasn't been feeling well lately, so I took one for the team and told him he could just go to bed.  I made an executive decision to let Grace go downstairs and set up camp in "her" chair so that she could turn the TV on low and watch something until she fell back asleep.  Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.  She has a bit of an intermittent, middle of the night, insomnia problem. I figured there would be no way to get both Jane and Grace to go back to sleep in the same room in the middle of the night, so this was my best option.

I spent the next hour trying to get Jane to sleep.  This is how that cycle went:  Read a few books, tuck her in, and go back to bed myself thinking she would finally fall asleep.  Hear her cry and cry {and cry} some more then finally cave and go back to calm her down before she woke anyone else up.

 

 Oh mom -- you know you love me.

She FINALLY fell asleep a little after 1 and I had just gotten back in bed hoping I could finally go to sleep when I heard all this rummaging going on downstairs.  It sounded like mice scurrying around only louder and with chairs being dragged and cabinet doors being slammed.  It was insane.  I finally jumped out of bed to see what the heck was going on and found Grace wide awake in "her" chair, tucked under a big blanket and watching TV.  After asking her what in the world she had been doing, she tearfully went on the defensive and said she was only trying to get a cup of water because she was thirsty.  I didn't want to push things any further, so I told her to be a little more quiet and try to go to sleep.  That would have been the end of things except that as I tried to pull the blanket up a little bit more to cover her, she kept the blanket clamped down tight around her lap and wouldn't let me pull it up.  After yanking a little harder I discovered what she was really hiding -- a heaping plate of nachos.  Hahahahahahahahaha.  Apparently all that noise I heard downstairs came from Grace dragging a chair over to the cabinet to get the tortilla chips down {sprinkling them with shredded cheese} and popping them in the microwave to make herself a little late night snack.  Hahahahaha.  What in the world???  I guess I should be proud of how resourceful she is, right?

I'd love to say I was able to sleep in this morning but that didn't happen.  Sleeping in is one of those luxuries that pretty much disappears once you start having kids.  This whole parenting thing is NO JOKE, let me tell you.  Hahaha.  To end on a more light-hearted note, here are some pictures I took yesterday in the late afternoon long before any of the bedtime crazies began.  I decided to seize the gorgeous day and try to get Jane and Alex's birthday pictures taken before the weather turns cold for good.  Jane is insane and almost never stays still, but I think I managed to capture a few photos that really hold the essence of Jane.  Alex, on the other hand, stayed strapped in his stroller while Jane's shoot went on {and on and ON} and when his turn finally came around we were running out of good daylight and Sophie REALLY had to use the bathroom so we ended up leaving after only a few shots of him.  Oh well!

 For some reason this photo makes me think of following the yellow brick road.  She just looks like she's about to go on some big adventure.

 My sweet little space cadet.

She almost always puts her shoes on the wrong feet.  It clearly doesn't bother her.

I tried to get Sophie to be my assistant and help make Jane stop and look at the camera and smile, but it didn't quite work.  Here is one shot of Jane copying off of a pose Sophie was trying to make her do.

My right-hand man.  Or Kindergartener as the case may be.

 She just lounged right up against the bridge railing like she was getting ready to shoot the breeze and I managed to capture this shot.  She is so hilarious sometimes.  Or pretty much all the time.  Except for when she doesn't listen and then she drives me crazy! 

She's a funny one.  I can't even remember what she was doing here or what she was trying to say.

 "Chubby cheeks" is a game Jane likes to play where she goes up to you and squeezes your cheeks as hard as she can while saying, "chubby cheeks!"  It really hurts.

 I love this picture because this is another "essence of Jane" photo.  The way she's looking back over her shoulder and talking out of the side of her mouth is classic "incredulous Jane."

Alex was in love with every single dog that walked by on the trail and when I finally let him out of his stroller he kept trying to go after them.  It was so cute.  I'm beginning to think, though, that if I want to get a decent shot for the mantle, it might be best to wait until he is all the way walking.  And it wouldn't hurt if I had a real assistant to help.  Hahaha.  I'm sure Scott will love it when I rope him into THAT. 

Cute little Lover Boy.

Here's to hoping I can get some sleep tonight!