Thursday, November 15, 2012

A Nearly No-Nap Day

My children were both angels at the play date today, despite my anxiety over a repeat of last week, which I'm sure at least partially contributed to my near-lack of sleep last night. It always seems to work that way- the nights that Michael is at his best, I am at my worst. So, while Michael remained in dreamland from 9:00 last night to 6:30 this morning, sleep completely eluded me until after 4 am.

This morning, I managed to drag myself out, with babies in tow, anyway, and had a blessedly peaceful experience, as Abby spent 90% of the time immersed in a pile of books, and Michael was in good spirits throughout.

There was even a super-cute moment when Abby decided not only to sit by the books, but literally, amongst them, and planted her little tush in the large basket that was designated to contain them. She stayed there for several minutes, but I was too slow of mind for it to occur to me that I had a camera in my bag to snap a picture of her. I may not have done it anyway, paranoid as I was each time I had to leave the room that an imminent crisis would choose that moment to strike.

As nicely as my children played, however, they were not up for sleeping when we got home. They both dozed off for the twenty-minute(ish) car ride, but Abby awoke shortly after being placed in her crib, and refused to settle back down. Michael slept for perhaps thirty minutes past the time of our arrival.

They did amazingly well, considering. Abby suffered a bit of a meltdown when Tom finally retrieved her from her crib, but he cheered her up by putting her in the kitchen with him to eat her lunch so that she could watch him begin to prepare dinner. Beef Bourguignon was on the menu for this evening, so he had to get started early. Sadly, her recurrent requests for "meat," had to be denied, repeatedly, since raw chuck roast is appropriate only for babies of the carnivorous variety.

I thought, perhaps, that we should try again to put her down once lunch was consumed, but she was in a chipper mood, so I didn't push it. And she did just fine up until bedtime, interestingly enough.

It was Michael who really struggled as the afternoon wore on, and particularly as 8:00 pm approached. He actually dozed off during his pre-bedtime bottle, which is unusual for him.

And then, all was blessedly peaceful. Bonus, no sickies for me tonight!

Here's hoping for many more such nights in the future. Now, a good night's rest is in short order. Goodness knows, I have some catching up to do.