Just Go To Sleep!

I may have gone a bit overboard with the whole "it's summer-no school in the morning-we're moving-sleep as late as you want-it's hot so take long naps again-eat dinners late-go to bed late" routine we have slipped into.

It was fun at first. The boys have been getting some extra time with Matt at night and making up for it by sleeping in late. It is beginning to wear on me though. I can often hear the big boys thumping and giggling and goofing off in their room as I am finally going to bed and drifting off to sleep myself.

Today, since Matt is traveling, I decided to begin to bring back the old schedule and I tried to stack the deck in my favor. I woke them up early, did not allow them to nap, bought them a slip n slide (ok, that was just for fun and not part of my plan) which they played on out in the sun all day long, ate dinner at a reasonable hour, even watched a movie to get them in the proper sleeping position at least!

They looked pretty tired when I marched them up to bed, and as I was tucking them in, I reminded them how tired they were and that they should have no problem just falling right to sleep. Ben looked at me like I just told him to sleep naked on the roof or something and said, "We can't do that! We never just fall right to sleep! We have plans!"

I then tried a different tactic. I pointed out that Dad is not here and that I was going to be in the shower, so please don't wander the house looking for me to tattle on each other or ask if you can have your light saber in bed. I won't be able to hear you. This was also a dumb thing for me to say, I guess. "Oh mom, I think we can find you. I know where your shower is. Silly... And anyways, when I can't find you, I just send Mitchell and he always finds you!"

I finally just said, "Ben, just stay in your bed and talk quietly, ok?" To which he answered, "But I might have to poop! What if I need a drink? What if I want to look out the window for Kevin (the neighbor)?"

This is when I just stopped talking. Clearly, he is his father's son and prefers to get the last word in. I just ended it with a strange combination of "I love you" mixed with evil eye... I heard giggling from both of them as I walked down the hallway, but they were asleep by the time I was done showering and I didn't have any visitors while I was in there.