On the couch

The scene. It's 11:00 at night and Gary is on call. The kids are in bed, I've finished the dishes and sent out email for Young Womens. I thought briefly about folding the laundry, but decided that since it surely isn't going anywhere it can probably wait. I've turned on the TV to pass the time until Gar gets home sometime after midnight.

During an ad break I hear tiny footsteps tip-toeing down the stairs. Sure enough, Annie Grace (who should have been asleep quite some time ago) is coming to give me the "I can't get to sleep" speech. I figure among parents anyway, this speech is only slightly less famous than the "I have a dream" speech. So she climbs on up. I love how kids never ask if they are invited to sit on your lap, they just climb on up. I guess I'm glad my kids always assume they are invited. In about 15 minutes, she's out.

Half an hour later I hear crying. Consider my position all stuck under a sleeping child while another one needs me upstairs. Fortuanetly Annie sleeps like a rock and so I call for the crying Ethan to come downstairs. It takes him a while in his groggy state, but he eventually finds me. Nightmares are not uncommon for Ethan, he just needs someone to snug with for a minute. So he crawls on up. He's so half-asleep he doesn't even seem to notice that he has to crawl over Annie. In about 15 seconds, he's out.

Ten minutes later I hear the cat on the prowl. If you think the cat is any different from the kids when it comes to being invited onto my lap you are sadly mistaken. She takes a moment to size up the situation. As she peeks over the edge of the couch I'm thinking any reasonable creature would surely decide there is no room left, but who ever claimed cats to be reasonable creatures? She hops up and in aout 5 minutes, she's out.

By the time Gary gets home every muscle I have aches. I've been needing to stretch for a while now, but I'm happy. It won't be too many years in the future until my kids won't do this any more. You'll notice my older kids managed to stay in their beds. I know parents with grown kids are always saying to appreciate the time you have while they are young because despite the chaos involved in child-rearing, you will miss it. These are the moments when I'm pretty sure it's true.