Mom's Never Sleep

It's 7am right now. I wouldn't normally mind (so much) being up this early except I stayed awake last night until 3am with a very alert, talkative boy. 4 hours of sleep, yuk! I guess it's my own fault... Sunday night, Tiffany brought a "flu"ish Anthony back with her from a trip to New Jersey for a friend's wedding. She had asked me to keep Ava up to see her brother when they got in so only David was already in bed when they got back in town and didn't get exposed. When Anthony was still throwing up Monday morning (yesterday), I packed a bag and threw David in the car straight from his bed. My escape had been made! I didn't know where I was going or what I was going to do - I would figure that out as the day went on - I just knew I had to get away while we still could!

A friend graciously offered for us to stay at her house and David napped beautifully here. For some reason, he just wasn't tired last night. Although, I'm sure the fact that I was sleeping in a bed only two feet from his was way too exciting for him to handle. I must have heard every scene from Dora and the Wiggles ever written. Here's how my night went:

Awake Son: "If you see Swiper, yell 'Swiper!'. Do you see Swiper? You do?? Say 'Swiper no swiping, swiper no swiping!'. Oh man!"

Tired Mommy: "David, lay down and go to sleep"

Not yet tired Son: "Oh No! Jeff fell asleep! On the count of three we're going to yell, 'wake up Jeff!'. Ready? One...two...three...Wake up Jeff!!!"

Really Tired Mommy: "David, lay down and go to sleep"

Still happy to be awake son: "Do you see Teddy Bear? You do? Where? Oh there it is!!"

I finally dragged his bed out of my room and into my friend's playroom - I drugged him up with a dose of banned Tylenol Cold, gave him a cup of milk and let him cry it out for about thirty minutes. It was a beautiful 4 hours that I slept.


So anyway, today we're going to miss Toddler Tuesday at the local museum. Tiffany says Ava didn't sleep well last night either - a public outing around other toddlers sounds like more than my poor sleepless body can handle today. Even the temptation of having a great disastrous story to tell tonight does not motivate me.

Toddler Tuesday is pretty cute. I like getting the "twins" out of the house for outings as much as possible. Been trying to stick by the APA's recommendation of no more than 2 hours of tv and at least one hour of outdoor play a day. Do you know how difficult that actually is?? Sometimes an hour outside can feel like years..."David don't eat the stick". "Ava stop pulling people off the slide.". And I definitely have to get the kids out in order to keep them from getting more than 2 hours of tv - tv is so easy...

Last time we went to Toddler Tuesday, we learned about the letter "C". They put a "C" stamp on everyone's hand as we walked in and we read some story about a cat. The teacher then held up flash cards of animals that started with the letter "C". We saw a caterpillar, a chimpanzee, a cricket... Ava and David were just sitting still for this part not really participating. Sometimes David is running around the room while Ava binds herself to my lap freaking out if another kid so much as bumps into her. Suddenly, the teacher held up a picture and said, "Look kids! What animal is this?" David stood straight up, lifted both hands in the air and screamed at the top of his lungs, "A TIGER!!!!!!". He kept screaming it and jumping up and down. Obviously proud that he knew the answer. The teacher had to correct him with the fact that it was a cougar.

Ok, they were obviously hurting for animals that started with "C". I mean how many toddlers would know the difference between a tiger and a cougar? (If your darling child does, don't bother commenting on this post - just keep it to yourself so I can feel better about my kid!) I should have punched that reckless teacher in the nose! They then passed around little tiny clear boxes each with a small cricket inside to the irresponsible 2 and 3 year olds, asking them to "please not shake" them. I'm still curious as to the final body count on that lesson.