"Some Kind of Mommie You Turned Out to Be!"

There is a nightly struggle in our house.  It begins every evening at around 5:30 and doesn't end some nights until around 10:30.  My husband calls it the witching hour.  Most call it bed time.  I call it HELL!  Not really, but it can seem that way sometimes.

Harrison has always rejected bedtime.  He says he hates going to sleep and will fight it to the bitter end.  His little sister seems to be following in her brother's footsteps now and it is about to push me over the edge.  The more tired Harrison gets the more wound up he gets and Emerson is obsessed with trying to scratch a mole off of my chest.  If I push her hand away she screams and sits up in the bed doing circles like a dog does before it finally finds the right spot to lay down.  Harrison inevitably gets hungry or his hiney burns or no one is snuggling up to him or I'm squishing him.  The only way lately for them both to fall asleep is for me to fall asleep and then I wake up an hour later all groggy with a dirty kitchen to clean up and a chicken pen still open.  Don't they know that they are cutting into the only ME time I have in the day?  And that the chickens are risking their lives for them to have "snuggle-up-a-gus" (that's what we call snuggling up together) until the moon and stars are aligned just perfectly for them to drift off to sleep?  Note:  There is no drifting off to sleep in our house.  It's more like skidding or screeching off to sleep!

The thing is, I know it's my fault that bed time is miserable.  I never taught them to fall asleep on their own so they think they have to have me there with them until they fall asleep.  Did I mention they sleep in our bed?  Anyway, tonight after reading together a bit, it was time for lights out and immediately Harrison started whining.  "Fine...so no one wants to snuggle up to me?  No one ever snuggles up to me.  Sister is always in the way!"  Sister gave him a good whack in the forehead and the crying began.  "Harrison, let me get Sister to sleep and then I'll come around to your side."  "Forget it!  Don't even bother.  I'll just sleep over here all by myself!"  Silence.  Sister is almost asleep and... "Hmmhhh!  Some kind of mommie you turned out to be!"  WOW!  He really knows how to jab that knife in doesn't he?

The truth is...I wouldn't trade this time with them for the world.  The mornings are especially good, and Lord willing, we will live through another day and do it all again tomorrow night.

Look at those little angels.  This time with them is priceless and worth every whack in the face, kick in the back, and finger up the nose!  Night, night!