Late Night Ramblings

Today was a crazy, hectic day.  Most days, I'm watching the clock slowly tick from 6:30 pm to 7:00 pm - The Bedtime Hour.  As soon as my kitchen stove reads 6:58 pm, I start clapping my hands and saying "Bedtime! It's bedtime!  Let's go! In the tub! Wee Miss - please finish picking up those toys.  Wee Master - let's go! To your bedroom!"  I race around setting out pajamas, diapers and detangling serum, glasses of water, and double-checking to make sure that each bed has their required favourite blankets and toys - everything so that Bedtime runs as smoothly (and quickly!) as possible.  The Bedtime Hour marks the end of my work day (barring any sick children or middle-of-the-night emergencies), and, after having spent the preceeding 12 hours having hands pull at me, food wiped on me, handling disputes over...well, you name it, manning Time Out, changing diapers and wiping bums, making food, picking up said food off the floor or from between the couch cusions, being sat on and cried on, etc....I CAN'T WAIT for bedtime! 

Today, however, was a hectic day (yes, I know I said that already - I'm repeating it for emphasis. "You put the em-PHAS-is on the wrong syl-AH-ble." Did anyone else see that movie?).  My skin started crawling at 5:26 pm.  5:26!! WAY too early to be jonesing for my Bedtime fix!  What am I going to do?!

Backtracking...My kids are not perfect but, most of the time, they're pretty darn close.  I can literally count on one hand the number of days my little man has been cranky; it's just not his style.  Today, nonetheless, was a cranky day.  The Little Miss was also cranky - a mix of lunchtime disappointment (she wanted Kraft Dinner, but Daddy made grilled cheese) and disappointment over the play area at the mall being closed for renovations.  Two cranky kids under the age of 4.  Wowza. We should have stayed home, in retrospect.  However, we had to pick up Missy Moo's Halloween costume (Belle) and do the grocery shopping. 

Crying, whining, kicking, screaming, crying!!  I cannot describe to you the hardships endured today.  I know it's because Mr. Man didn't have a proper nap, and had to snooze in his carseat and, later, with his little face pressed into my neck as I carried him around the grocery store.  I know it's because Missy Moo didn't eat enough of her lunch and was hungry (despite having eaten her snack and half of her brudder's).  I know it's because Grocery Day sucks balls.  That knowledge does not make it any easier to deal with the chaos.

Yes, so! It's 5:30 pm and I'm just itching for Bedtime! Hoping that they'd just fall asleep right as they were - the Little Lady playing with a naked Snow White Barbie who appeared to be riding My Little Pony's Pinkie Pie into Strawberry Shortcake's house, and Momma's Little Man, with two crayons clutched in his fists, scribbling furiously over his colouring book (and my hardwood floor, I discovered later).  I put on a movie hoping it'll keep them quiet.  It does.  Good ol' Hundred Acre Woods.  I can count on Pooh and his crew to keep their little eyes glued to the screen, and their mouths slighly agape.  When that was finished, I put on another movie, and let them eat supper watching it (BAD Mommy!).  I did the dishes, finished picking up, locked myself in the bathroom with a book for a few chapters (what? I know I'm not the only one who pretends to be using the bathroom just for a few moments away!)...

And then it was Bedtime!  Daddy takes over and the precious bundles are washed, dried and clothed.  Goodnight kisses all around...a quick recitation of Wynken, Blynken and Nod for the Littlest Lord, three blown kisses each and they're in bed.  I SAAIIID get in bed, Missy!  Well, use the bathroom quickly, wash your hands and hop back into bed.  With soap!  Back to bed.  To. Bed. Goodnight.

I plop, exhausted, into my favourite chair.  I open Laptoppy, and Handsome Hubby hands me a Smirnoff Ice.  Ooo! Raspberry!  I leisurely fart around the internet and half-watch Dead Like Me, sipping my drink.  I'm so tired, but I can't go to bed now.  This is the first time I've had to myself all day!  All traces of the kids are off the floor.  I stretch my arms above my head; the left one is a little sore from carrying Mr. Man's 22 lb sleeping frame around.  He can never seem to get comfortable sleeping on my right shoulder, so my left it is...even if I end up looking like Popeye before he gets too big.  I tuck my feet under me, cuddle down under a blanket of Pablo and Tyrone and finish Season 1.  Aaaaaaah.  THIS is nice.

11:00 pm rolls around.  I turn the TV off, hook up the dishwasher and kiss Hubby goodnight (he's raiding tonight).  Even though it's my turn to sleep in (and, therefore, my turn to stay up Ridiculously Late), I just can't keep my eyes open any more....plus, I'd have the bed to myself for just a little while.  How can I resist that?!

Standing beside the bed, I send a quick text to my little seester, and then I pull the blankets back.  Half a blue crayon, a yellow car and Ballerina Barbie's (previously missing!) tutu skirt are laying there, right in the middle.  Suddenly, I wish they were awake, thumping up and down the hallway, screaming and laughing, jumping off the back of the couch, chasing the cats, dropping yogurt eeeeverywhere and climbing me.

There's just no pleasing some people.