Totally Worth It

In the past couple months, I started Lana on a bad habit. I have nobody to blame but myself. As I've mentioned before she wakes up in the middle of the night often. Sometimes it's just a matter of going in her room and covering her back up, but other times it takes more effort. A few months ago, I started letting her come to our bed in the middle of the night, because I needed the sleep so badly. I always told her, "only 5 minutes", and usually it is only that amount of time. Then I take her back to her own bed. There are times, though, when we both fall asleep and I wake up hanging off the side of my bed, with with an arm flung over my forehead, and a knee in my back. At that point I carry her back to her room, where she'll stay until the morning.

A couple weeks ago, I thought I was going to try and break her of this habit, but then Andy said leave it alone, she'll grow out of it. Then one of the mom's at gymnastics said her girls sometimes come in her bed in the middle of the night and she doesn't mind at all. She said she knows soon enough, they'll want nothing to do with her at all, let alone come to her bed when they're scared. So she's enjoying the time with them now. I thought about this and decided they were both right. Instead of fighting her on it, I'd just let it be. Unfortunately, it is a routine we go through just about EVERY night, which interrupts my sleep, but at least she willingly goes back to her bed after a few mintues.

Last night she woke up screaming, and I ran in her room to calm her down. I covered her up and it appeared she was going to go back to sleep. Then, just as I was about to sneak out of the room, I heard,

"Mommy, I come to yoaw bed?"

"Okay," I replied, "but only 5 minutes." She agreed and I picked her up and carried her back to my room.

We layed there for a few minutes, neither of us sleeping, until I decided it was long enough. I told her it was time to go. She agreed. I took her to her room and I tucked her back in. Then I gave her a kiss and just as I turned to go she said,

"I love you, SO much mommy."

After hearing this, I melted into a puddle on the floor.

After I composed myself into a walking human being again, I went over to her bed, gave her a kiss and told her I loved her SO much, too.

I guess we won't be getting our bed back to ourselves anytime soon, and that's just fine by me.

Sleeping In

There's been a new trend happening in our house the past couple weekends, and I have to say it's FAB-U-LOUS! The girls have been waking up a bit early on the weekends, meaning anywhere between 6:30-6:45am. That's not the good part, but BUT! they have been entertaining themselves! Sonya will take Lana, go into Georgia's room, and read stories to both of them for up to a whole HALF HOUR! That's an extra half hour that Andy and I can sleep. Or at least lie in bed and pretend to sleep, while listening to them. Sometimes it's quite amusing, like last weekend.

Last Sunday was Valentine's Day, as many of you know, even if you were trying hard to forget. For Andy and I, Valentine's Day isn't really a big deal, but we do get a little something for the girls and we get each other cards. Sometime early Sunday morning, Sonya decided she needed to give us something. I woke up to her searching in her art supply closet, which is in the linen closet in the hallway. When I heard her, I sat up in bed, and asked what she was doing.

"I can't tell you! It's a SURPRISE!" She said.

Okay, then. I just laid back down and pretended like nothing was happening. Then I realized she was being a bit loud and told her to close Georgia's door, since she was still sleeping. It was only 6:35 after all, and no sense in waking up the one kid I would have to get out bed for. She did as she was told, and went back to rummaging through the closet. At this point Lana woke up and came out to see what was going on. Sonya told her she was looking for something to make us for Valentine's Day. Lana wanted to help, and Sonya was more than willing to put her to work.

Since it was early, it was still a bit dark in the hallway. We have a light in the hallway that will pop on when it detects motion. I only put it on this way at night, since I'm up 25 times with one or all of the girls. It's partially so I can see when I'm stumbling to their rooms at 3am, and partially because I'm not fond of the pitch black dark in general. Because Sonya was standing and looking in the closet, the light would go off once she wasn't moving for a few seconds then she couldn't see as well. She doesn't know how to turn the light so it just stays in the "on" position. While I could have gotten out of bed and helped with this, I was so comfy, and besides what happened next was much more amusing.

Sonya and Lana would stand in front of the closet looking for whatever it was they were looking for, and then the light would go off. Then Sonya would send Lana to run down the hallway to trigger the motion sensor. She'd run back to the closet, then the light would go off after 10 seconds. Lana would again run down the hallway, her little feet stomping with purpose, then back to the closet when the light would pop back on. Closet, off, run, closet, off, run. This must have happened at least a dozen or so times; all the while Andy and I just laid in bed, eyes closed listening, silently giggling to ourselves.

Finally, I felt kinda bad and got up to help them with what they were looking for. I got the art case they wanted out of the closet and put it in the living room. Then Sonya told me to leave them alone. No problem! I went back to bed. After all how much trouble could they get in with art supplies, like glue, markers and crayons? Okay, they're all washable, so worst case scenario I clean up a mess later. Totally worth it for extra sleep.

As it turns out, Sonya can not only be trusted with those supplies, but she is also an incredibly sweet girl. About 25 minutes later, when the clock let us know it was a better hour for waking up, she and Lana ran into our room yelling,

"HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!"

They had made cards for both of us and little clay sculptures of roses and a butterfly. They were quite good too, I must say. See for yourself below.

So now that they will get up on the weekends and entertain themselves for a bit, all I need to do is train them to cook up some bacon and eggs and serve them to us in bed.

See, I KNEW having kids would come in handy some day!