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Friday, March 11, 2016

A better day

No one threw up on me in the middle of the night.

Both girls went to school and each had a happy day.

I ignored the laundry and dishes and took Benjamin and Zoë on an outing just for fun.

Andrew finished one of his papers and submitted it, which means I found time to finish editing it.

He came home and made dinner, which was not peanut butter and jelly.

Benjamin didn't drive me quite so crazy.

Zoë still didn't nap well...and it's 1:30 and she's still awake.

But I'm feeling a lot better about life today than I was yesterday.

Andrew and I even joked about that one time we flew from Utah to Egypt and Rachel fell asleep as we were coming in to land...in Cairo. It was not a direct flight and took well over 24 hours. Oh, and there was that one time we flew from Egypt to Spain and she didn't fall asleep until we'd made it to the train station in Madrid. And also the time she stayed awake from Cairo to Athens. I don't remember when she fell asleep, but I think it was as I was carrying her through the airport (some kind man let me cut ahead of him in the passport line; Andrew wasn't with me and I was pregnant with Miriam and the man probably watched me wrestle with Rachel the entire overnight flight and felt sorry for me).

We've done monster-baby before, but somehow it's more tiring now that we're old and grey.


On the other hand, we've gained a been-there-done-that mentality along with those grey hairs. I have faith that she'll eventually start sleeping. And even if she doesn't...she eventually won't need me with her while she's awake.

As I mentioned, Benjamin didn't drive me quite so crazy today. It was like his adorable-to-abominable ratio tipped in favour of adorableness (or, I dunno, I wasn't running around mopping up vomit so was naturally inclined to be in a better mood).

As a prelude to the main story I want to tell, I'll tell a few from yesterday while we were driving to the stake center. Benjamin was talking nonstop, which he tends to do when he's tired. We've pointed this out before and apparently he's noticed because when Andrew said, "Benjamin! Why are you talking so much?!"

Benjamin said, "I don't know. I'M NOT TIRED. My throat just wants me to say things."

Later he yawned and before anyone could ask him about it he said, "That wasn't a yawn! That was just some airplane noises." Then he lifted up the paper airplane he'd been holding and made a fake yawning sound as he zoomed it around in the air. "See?" he said.

He's so convincing.

Anyway, he loves to "do projects," which drives me crazy because he still doesn't write or draw very much. He mostly just scatters art supplies and cuts everything he can. He loves scissors. Oh, and tape. He goes through so much tape.

I confiscate tape and scissors all the time but it doesn't seem to change much.

"Benjamin," I lectured when I caught him with the tape (again). "I don't like it when you just use tape and tape and tape."

"I'm not," he said. "I'm using paper and scissors, too."

"But, Benji," I said. "You're just wasting it."

"I'm not!" he said. "I'm making a family night lesson."

"It's not family night tonight," I said.

"Okay," he said and kept on doing what he was doing.

And I didn't stop him because I was nursing. You'd be surprised at what this boy takes the opportunity to do when he knows I won't be standing up for ten-to-twenty minutes. (Okay, maybe you wouldn't.)

This evening, after sitting down as a whole family to eat our first decent meal all week together, we gathered in the living room to read "actual scriptures (none of that fake stuff we've been doing)," as Andrew said. We've been doing a lot of, "Everyone say a scripture. Well done," rather than actually reading from the scriptures.

Both methods have their merits, to be sure, but we really need to get through the Book of Mormon this year, so...it was time to dive back in. We're in mid-Alma. We started last January.

When we'd finished our chapter, Benjamin said, "And now for my family night lesson!"

"It's not family night," Andrew said. "It's bedtime."

"Oh, just let him give his lesson," I said. "He worked on it for a long time this afternoon."

"Hooray!" Benjamin said and he ran off to fetch his visual aid, which happened to be a piece of paper that he'd cut up, stacked up, and taped up. He stood in front of the room, cleared his throat, held up his messy craft with a reverent smile and began an adorable monologue:

"For family night we're going to learn about Star Wars and play a Star Wars game. So, this is a Star Wars thing that I made and it's Princess Leia and I am Princess Leia's ship. So I will just stick Princess Leia in my pocket...but...oh...I don't have any pockets because these are my pyjamas...so...."

He paused to stuff his papers into his pants.

"There we go. Okay, Dad, now you are Darth Vader's ship and you have to chase me (but you can't catch me)."

And with that proclamation, he fled the living room and Andrew gave chase and everyone else joined in the fray. And it was a lovely family night.

Oh, and I just put Zoë down, for the record. 2:19 am.

CLAW MY EYES OUT.

1 comment:

  1. Just popping in to say that I sympathize with your awake-child laments SO HARD. Oh my gosh, the descriptions of Rachel awake on flights just makes me laugh the same way I would when we were just as deliriously tired with Miriam! What is with these kids?!?! I don't know if you were on our flight from Vienna to Amman in 2006 but on that last leg (after SLC JFK and then JFK to Vienna) I covered my head with a blanket so none of you students could see me and just cried some tired tears because Miriam was STILL AWAKE on like hour 40 of travel. SOLIDARITY.

    And it is an aviationaryical fact that children fall asleep best upon the landing gear of an airplane being engaged. What is UP with that.

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