Late Night Discussions

My boys stayed up later than Matt and I did last night. The excitement over their first sleep-over was just too high to wind down and I drifted off to sleep hearing them still going strong in their room.

Before I gave up trying to wait them out, I tiptoed down the hall to spy on them, just to make sure no one had a sleeping bag on their head or were sleeping naked or all the lights on with legos dumped everywhere. One quick peak told me they were obediently bundled in their sleeping bags, Ben and Mitch on either side of their buddy, lights off (besides flash lights and light sabers), and fully discussing some pretty important topics that needed straightening out:

Ben: Man, I really HATE zombies!

Mitchell: Yeah! Because they chop your heads off and eat your brains!

Jake: But zombies aren't even real!

Ben: Well, that's true.... But if they were real, I'd really HATE them!

Mitchell: Hey Jake! Did you know that people actually EAT brains? They do! Not people brains, but cow brains! And hearts too!

Jake: Yeah! And lungs too!

Ben & Mitchell: No!!! You can't eat lungs!!

Jake: Yes you can! I ate a chicken lung! It had a lot of air in it....

Ben & Mitchell: *laughing*

Ben: But ghosts are not real either even though kids at school think they are. Man, they are so wrong! DEAD wrong!

I sensed perhaps the conversation was going to circle back here, so I quietly walked back down the hall to report to Matt and we had a good chuckle at the important discussions of our boys.

Sleep At Your Own Risk

I am so thankful this is not me this time. Beware where and when you fall asleep in my home. You are likely to wake up finding yourself in strange circumstances: like covered in toy cars with a 35 lb toddler riding his trike over you...

Be Careful Where You Fall Asleep!

I get so tired sometimes. I know I have blogged about this before - how I sometimes am so tired I feel I could lay down and sleep just about anywhere at any time of the day? Any other moms feel this way, or should I go see a doctor...

Well, today was another one of those days where I just wanted to lay down in every room I was in. Playing in the basement with the boys: I set up a nice bed of couch cushions and made that home base for the Autobots. Living room: couches of course. I was trying to read stories to the boys but Ben had to take over for me after a while. Boys' bedroom: in the nice, warm, clean pile of laundry of course! It was just so inviting that I had to snuggle up in it. Soon enough, my eyes didn't want to stay open anymore and I was drifting off to semi-consciousness (I can't actually sleep with three boys playing around and on me.)

Well, I knew Mitchell and Jack were messing around with the laundry around me and I could certainly feel them climbing on me and playing with my legs. I sensed no problem though, so I continued to drift. Finally, Mitchell came up to my face and softly said, "Mom! Are you cozy enough now? I bet you are nice and comfy and warm!"

Come to think of it, I was feeling a bit toasty. The room wasn't that warm when I laid down. Curiosity overcame my sleepiness and I sat up, only to find the boys' shirts, pants, underwear, and jammies all on my legs. Not just laying on my legs. They had put my feet through one of the holes in each piece of clothing, a leg hole or a neck hole, and filled my legs up with as many pieces as they could get on there! I just looked at my legs, then looked at the happy expressions on my boys' faces, and started laughing.

I really never know what will happen if I start to sleep around these boys.

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.

What Are They Doing In Their Sleep?

I have recently found a new obsession: finding my big boy, Ben, some big boy pajamas.  I don't want Sponge Bob or Scooby Doo or Spiderman or Batman or skeletons riding skateboards.  I want simple, cotton, plaid or single color pajamas.  I have searched high and low for these jammies for a few months now and, let me tell you, they are hard to find!  

While most of what I can find are covered in super-heroes or... sponges (Sponge Bob is a sponge, right?), most of the rest of what is out there is not made out of cotton, but polyester.  I'm not really sure what polyester is, but I do know that all pajama-makers are quite proud of this material, based on one aspect of it: it is flame-resistant!  In big yellow or red tags is written in bold, capital letters: "Flame resistant."  

I am left wondering what the big deal is here.  Maybe some of you more knowledgeable moms can help me out here, but why exactly is this an important factor when considering the merits of your children's sleepwear?  What do we expect them to do in their sleep that their clothing needs to resist fire?  Am I to assume they move so much in their sleep that they cause enough friction to start a fire, or is this merely a safety precaution in case a fire starts in their room?  If that is the case, should I depend on these amazing jammies to protect their skin from the inferno blazing around them?

I am not impressed.  Polyester may indeed have flame or heat repelling properties, but I don't like the feel or look of it and will continue my search for good old-fashioned cotton minus the weird sponge-ish characters, even if it means I have to run into their room a few seconds faster to save them in the event we actually have a fire at night.

Well That Was Fun!

Our decision to begin our weekend trip to Michigan at 10pm was based largely on the idea that it would be the quickest and most peaceful way to go about the drive. We knew there would be no traffic to fight causing us to fight each other out of frustration, and, more importantly, our kids would all just sleep the whole trip away, be carried in at our destination without waking, and settle peacefully into their beds at the end.

Well, we were right about the traffic. That's all we were right about. While the big boys did eventually fall asleep out of exhaustion, Jack never did give in to the sleep monster. At about 11pm, I kept hearing "Boo!" A little while later, the game was whack mommy in the back of the head with your blankie. Next up, spitting contests. I'm going to need to scrub that window pretty thoroughly today and his jammies were soaked. When he tired of that, he began round one of yelling, which eventually gave way to repeating the same syllable over and over again: "bububububububu..." When that got old, he decided to start pestering his sleeping brother next to him by grapping an entire handful of hair and yanking him awake! We must have searched for his blankie 30 times.

Perhaps he was just too distracted by the swirling vortex of snow and wind we traveled through. I know I was pretty focused on it myself. There were times along the way that the highway was completely covered in snow and the snow really was hitting us from every direction, giving the impression that we were flying rather than driving. At times, the only thing we could was the dim tail lights of the big rig directly in front of us (also adding to the swirling mess of snow, but at least giving us something to follow rather than rely on the side bumpy strips on the road to tell us where the road was. That is just plain annoying!)

We did finally arrive at our destination in the middle of the night, but the problem of getting Jack to sleep continued on. His crib mattress must have been made of lava or something because just being lowered down into it, barely touching his toes on it set off a scream of torture. As we are staying in someone else's house, I gave up quickly on the torture baby bed idea and brought him into my bed, thus beginning a 2-hour, middle of the night wrestling match between us. He poked me in the eyes, he sat on my head. He crawled under the covers to the foot of the bed and got stuck. He body slammed dad. He head butted him awake. He discovered the head board makes a funny sound when you bash your head against it and repeated that delightful excercise over and over again.

When I woke up a few hours later, I hadn't realized that I had even fallen asleep. I felt like Ben when he claims he hadn't slept when he gets up in the morning.

An Exception To A Very Important Rule

I am sure you have heard the advice, "Never disturb a sleeping baby" or some variation of this before.  It isn't just advice in our home, it is an important rule.  It has been a rule applying to all my kids, not just babies, since my first one was born.  

Well, times are changing.  I no longer have three nappers.  Jack is the only one who takes a nap anymore, so he is really the only one we tip-toe around while sleeping.  The other two are notallowed to take naps anymore, even if they could really use one, because just a few minutes of shut-eye causes them to be awake far too long after bedtime.  It really is amazing how just a half hour nap causes them to loose hours of nighttime sleep.

So while we still have this rule in our house, I make exceptions when the big boys fall asleep in the middle of the day.  I allow them to sleep for just a bit (obviously, they are in need of a little rest if they fall asleep on their own, despite their best efforts not to sleep) but not only do I wake them up after only the briefest of rests, I don't require a quiet atmosphere around them either.  In fact, I often enlist the help of the other boys to wake the sleeping one.  

While always grumpy towards their mom or dad for waking them before they are ready, they rarely get mad if I allow Jack to work his magic on them, and Jack just can't resist a sleeping brother!  I think he thinks it is a good game of peek-a-boo or something.  Whatever his reasons, he loves to play with them most when they are asleep.  He climbs on them, snuggles them, rolls over them, pulls their hair, slobber-kisses them, and just laughs and babbles throughout the entire waking up process.

Look at their faces.  This is not the look or response I get when I wake him on my own.

One More Thing!

Ever since school started, I have had NO trouble with the boys staying up late in their room, goofing off, constantly getting drinks out of the sink, draining some more "last drops," "reading" every book on the shelf, bickering, giggling, shouting, whispering, and, by the sound of it, square dancing or something equally loud and thumpy!  These were all regular nightly occurrences after 8:30 pm in the Norquist boys' room after lights out, but those days are gone.  Since there is no longer any chance of a nap for them, plus they are in school every day, plus we drain every drop of daylight left to us playing outside until it just gets too cold to do so, they are just too exhausted to even attempt their usual shenanigans.  

Occasionally on a weekend though, Mitchell will have fallen asleep on the couch watching a movie in the afternoon or in the car on the way to dinner, and that little 20 min "power nap" is all it takes to bring out the nighttime shenanigans again.  

Last night, Ben fell asleep almost immediately, leaving Mitchell awake and alone and bored.  This is when he begins his tiptoeing (or often slithering on his belly) out of his room and down the hall to peak around the corner and down the stairs to check out the action down here.  First he will say something like, "my covers are all messed up and I'm uncomfortable!"  I fix those for him (cause who really wants to sleep under messed up covers?!) but then a few minutes later, he will come out again with a new problem: "You forgot to leave the bathroom light on!"  "Ben won't talk to me!" "I heard a noise!" "I need the light on to read!" "I want to wear my slippers!" "I lost my blankie!"

Last night was a funny one though.  After 3 or 4 of the usual complaints, he finally just slithered out, laid down at the top of the stairs, and asked, "What are you guys watching down there?"  I answered that it was a show for moms and dads and not for little boys and that he needed to get back to bed and not come out again.  He gave me a look, got up, pointed at me, and mumbled, "I think it is a show for kids but you don't want me down there!"  After that, he stomped back to his room and we didn't hear from him again.  

Once again, Mitchell gave Matt and me a good chuckle and we spent a few minutes talking about how purposely and accidentally funny our little boys is.  

I checked on him a bit later to make sure he didn't have the dreaded "crooked covers" all night long, and he was as peaceful as can be, curled up under perfectly straight covers, arm around his blankie, head actually on the pillow, small pile of toys and books neatly piled up at the foot of his bed, no longer needed as distractions.  

The Strange Sleep Habits Of My Kids

This morning, we had a discussion about sleep.  Mitchell was trying to tell us (in great detail) about the dream he had last night, while Ben constantly interrupted to point out flaws in the content: "That couldn't happen, Mitch!"  At one point in his story, he pointed out the fact that he had his eyes open during this dream, to which Ben really took exception to!  "Mitchell, you cannot dream or sleep with your eyes open!  You can dream that your eyes are open, but they actually aren't!"  Mitchell was not to be convinced and stood his ground: he had, indeed, kept his eyes open all night long, even though he was asleep and dreaming.  

This isn't the first time Mitchell has admitted this strange habit of sleeping with his eyes open.  He regularly tells me that he will lay down for bed and even sleep if he has to, but he is not going to close his eyes!  He makes that very clear.

Ben also claims an unusual sleeping habit: he doesn't sleep!  Quite often, he tells me that he was awake all night long.  When I ask him if he is tired then because of that he says, "No, I laid there quietly and rested, but didn't sleep."  Sometimes he claims to have looked out the window all night, sometimes he read throughout the night.  Sometimes he just played with his toys in bed until morning and was waiting for me, awake, when I came in to get him up for school.  

Both boys make their claims with a straight face, no tell-tale giggling, and an honest look about them.  I think they really believe it when they say it.  No biggie to me.  I don't really care how they sleep as long as they actually do sleep.

So one boy doesn't sleep at all, the other one sleeps, but keeps an eye or two open, so as not to miss what his sleepless brother is doing, I assume.