My Exhausted Little Old Soul

A couple of weeks ago Sonya's Girl Scout troop went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park to stay overnight at an in the park camp sight they have.  Because her troop has done so well with their cookie and nut sales the past few years, they were able to have enough funds to cover this fun adventure for all the girls and leaders.  It's something they have been planning and talking about for a year and Sonya was beyond excited.  I was excited for her.  It sounded like a blast.  They were going to spend the day at the Park, then hang out with other troops around the campfire at night.  The animal experts would be bringing a couple of animals during their campfire time, to show the girls.  Then the next day they would walk the park a bit more before coming home.  

Now, I knew before sending her, that she would most likely not get a lot of sleep and be exhausted the next day.  If you know anything about little girls and sleepovers, it's that they bounce off the walls and chat until way past their usual bedtime.  Then for some reason they like to get up at an ungodly hour the next day.  This all makes for a disastrous Sonya.  You know how as your kids grow you see some of your traits they picked up from you?  Well, not being able to function on little sleep comes straight from her father.

Sidestory-Years ago, Andy worked a graveyard shift at a post production company.  Trying to sleep during the day and stay up at night will wreak havoc on anybody, but Andy had a very difficult time with it.  Especially on the weekends when he would try to get on my and his roommate's schedules to hang out.  He ended up being very ummm...we'll say cranky.  (love you, babe!)  Anyway-this is exactly how Sonya is when she's overtired.  Just so you don't think I'm throwing my husband under the bus, I will tell you about my weakness that I passed along to Miss Lana.  I am no good when I get hungry.  I mean any one of my family members can tell you stories about me yelling at hostesses in restaurants if I feel someone got a seat before us.  If I'm hungry you better back the hell off.  Or I may eat your arm.  I have discovered the same about Lana.  The nights she doesn't eat her dinner she turns into the Incredible Hulk when she wakes up.  She's torn up quite a few PJ's that way.  The good news is, as soon as she gets a bowl of cereal in her belly, she turns back into little sweet Lana.  The funny thing is I do just fine on little sleep and Andy can eat cereal in the morning and not look at food until 8pm and still be Mr. Sunshine.  I always say if we could combine those powers we would make one kick ass Survivor player.  

Sorry-I digress.

So Sonya.  Lack of sleep.  Right.  

When I picked her up on Sunday afternoon, I could see how tired she was.  It also didn't help that she had sprained her ankle 2 weeks before and it had started really bothering her on their trip.  It took a toll on her and they had to rent a wheelchair  for part of the time.  So there was that little gem in there too.  

She was excited to tell me about everything.  As she was talking, I managed to get my questions in there about her sleep. When did she go to bed?  

"About 10-but I woke up in the middle of the  night and it was so cool because you could hear the lions roaring and at one point I heard an elephant!!"

Okay that is pretty cool, but still, bed at 10 and then up for a while in the night?  Oh boy.

"Well, what time did you wake up this morning?" I asked.

"Well, the first wake up call sounded at 6:15," she informed me.  "So I was awake then."

I knew then we were in for it.  No biggie.  We would go home have dinner, showers and get her to bed early.  She still seemed to be doing well.

Except that when we got home, after her initial greetings and talking about her trip, the excitement started to wear off.  There was quite a bit of general crankiness, followed by multiple bursts of crying.  About what you ask?  Anything and everything.  I know one of the biggest culprits was that we had put up the Halloween decorations while she was away, something she likes to help out with.  I had informed her that this would probably happen, and she seemed fine with it when she left.  It's not like we could all sit around, not do anything fun and wait for Sonya to come home for two days.  She was off having her own incredible time.  Although I have to admit, when I was a kid I was terrible about this as well.  Whenever I had a sleepover or went somewhere fun on my own, I was worried about what kind of fun things my family was doing without me.  Eventually, I got over it but it's hard at first.  

Andy was trying to calm her down about the decorations as she broke down into what could have been her 20th crying spurt.  Then she started to tell him it wasn't about the decorations and putting them up necessarily.

"Well, then what it is about?" He asked.

"Well, it's just that when I see the Halloween decorations up already it just reminds me how fast time goes.  It's already Halloween and I'm just getting bigger!  It's just going so fast!"

I'm sorry-who let the 30 year old possess my child's brain?  

Sure I worry about how fast time goes NOW, but I NEVER gave it one bit of thought when I was 8!  In fact Halloween and Christmas seemed to take five years to get to.  I thought they would never come.   And I'm fairly certain Andy felt the same way.  Not our old soul daughter though.  Nope.  Time is going to fast for her.   Of course I shouldn't be that surprised.  This is the kid who at five years old would cry to me at bedtime about how she didn't want to get older and have to move out and leave us.  Who thinks like that at FIVE?!  

Andy did his best to calm her down and he agreed with her that time does seem to move fast.  That is why we have to do what we can to spend as much time doing fun things with the people that we love.  I also assured her that when the Christmas decorations come out she can help us put those up.  She eventually calmed down and we went on with our evening.  Yes, there were more tears, but for what I couldn't tell you.  The toothpaste wasn't coming out right, she ran out of shampoo in the shower.  Who knows?  She was exhausted and she is an 8 year old girl.  Not a good combo.  

She made it to bed and passed out right at 8pm, which is early for her since most night she reads until almost 9.  She could barely keep her eyes open by the end.  I'd like to say she was better by the next morning, because you think she would be with all the sleep.  She wasn't as bad, but it takes two nights of good sleep for her to get completely back to normal. 

I know there will be more times in the future when she doesn't get enough rest.  Good luck to her when she has a baby!  But next time I know not to put up decorations that will make her feel like time is moving too quickly.  I want her to be a kid for as long as she can.  I will worry about the time moving too quickly.  Because, damn.  It really does.