Nov 07
22
Worn Out
Posted by Stephen22
Tags: children, play, rest
Joel was so tired he fell asleep sitting up at the dining table, with his head on his placemat. He fell asleep while waiting for the rest of us to sit down for dinner. I fed Daniel his dinner and ate mine while Joel slumbered away. Eventually I picked him up, changed him into his pajamas, gave him some Tylenol, and tucked him into bed. He hadn’t had anything to eat. I hope he doesn’t wake up in the wee hours of the morning, complaining he’s hungry.
Micah finished off the better part of his sweet potato mush, and sat silent and motionless for a while in his high chair, eyes open but glazed. It was an excellent statue impersonation. Eventually those little eyes drifted shut and the little head sagged to one side. I had just come back from putting Joel to bed, so I turned around and put Micah to bed too.
Daniel carried on, full of beans. Nope. He didn’t want to go to bed. Oh well. Just for a moment I’d had a glimmer of a vision of all the boys in bed by 6:30. Never mind.
I read an I Spy book with Daniel instead. About halfway through he got bored of it and started using me as a bridge between the couch and the coffee table, sort of like stepping stones across the rug, accompanied by gales of laughter. I continued with the I Spy book, imperturbable. Daniel may have had other ideas, but I was going to have my quiet evening. At one point Debbie glanced into the room and was horrified by visions of a slip, a fall, and the corner of the coffee table gouging out an eye. I could feel the sure-footed grip of those little toes on my back, and wasn’t too worried.
I got to the end of the book, stood up, and declared it was time for bed. There was no fuss. Best of all, there had been no slips, falls, or gouges. Now all is quiet. There’s just the happy little tune of Debbie’s Monopoly game on the computer next to me, and the creaks of the house as it settles down for the night.
Oh yes, I almost forgot. We had our first snow of the season this morning. Just a light dusting, but it’s always a milestone we look forward to. Not sure why, exactly. It looks pretty, I suppose.
