Meanwhile, In The Middle Of The Night

I had a post all set in my head about weight loss and buying new shorts, and I was sort of planning it out in my head as I lay down to sleep last night. I figured I could get it started in the morning and put on my new shorts for inspiration. This is not that blog post.

Approximately 2:30 a.m. the sound of a cat being simultaneously stretched on the rack and smothered by a pillow emanated from the kids’ bedroom. That was followed by the door exploding open and rapid footsteps down the hall to the bathroom. My wife and I found our daughter hugging the toilet like it was a Pillow Pet, but the sounds coming out of her were anything but loving.

That might be the best paragraph I write all month.

We comfort and soothe her, get her back to bed, and a few minutes later she’s back at the toilet. Déla is afraid to go back to bed, understandably, so Laura decides to lay down with her. This doesn’t last long before she’s up at it again. By the time Déla fell back asleep it was about 3:45 a.m.

Then Xavier decides to wake up at 4:20 a.m. crying. Who knows what is going on with him, since he is only 15 months old. I suspect it has to do with the molars that are coming in. two have broken through, and two others are very pronounced under the gums. It could be he has an upset tummy like his sister. Regardless, by the time I got back to bed it was about 4:40 a.m.

My alarm was going to go off soon, so I decided it would be better to shut it off and attempt to get some sleep while I could. It took me a while to get back to sleep, as it always does. I envy those people who can fall asleep right away. My wife is like that, but not me.

Ciárán wakes up at 6:00 a.m., almost as if he has an alarm clock in his head. I get up with him, because having a 4 year old wandering around downstairs by himself is usually frowned upon by Child Protective Services. I fire up the computer, feed the cat, start the coffee, you know, the usual morning routine. For the first hour or so this morning I’ve been pretty much a zombie, not really awake, but functional. As the morning progressed, and I’ve begun to imbibe my excessive quantity of coffee, my brain cells have begun firing in tandem enough to not only speak in more than monosyllables but begin acting like a human being.

As I type this, Déla is still asleep while everybody else is awake. Well, not quite. Xavier has been up and is now back down for his morning nap. Where was I going with all of this? I have no idea. I may be functional and acting “human” but that doesn’t mean I really know what I’m doing.