I am not a fan of evening activities. Before school and after school and on weekends.... fine. Until 7:30 or 8:00 on a school night... not fine.
When Ben is not home, his absence is never felt stronger than when I am trying to get the night winded down. It's difficult even on a smooth night, but it feels impossibly hard on the nights when we have to be somewhere past what is normal bedtime for Katie and Drew, as was the case last night and tonight.
It feels chaotic here as I try to herd two overtired kids through teeth brushing and toileting and getting pajamas on and reading a bedtime book. All of the normal cuddling and gentleness of this time of night is replaced with sternness and grouchiness. "GO TO BED!" must have come out of my mouth a dozen times over the past fifteen minutes.
I am, in fact, sitting in the darkness of Katie's room typing as she finally, finally dozes off. I thought the child would never stop talking. A tired Katie goes one of two ways- full of energy and over-the-top talkative or extremely emotional and in tears about everything. Neither is easy to get to sleep. The grumbling about going to bed seems to have finally stopped from upstairs as well, so my fingers are crossed that this second night in a row of bedtime struggle is behind us.
When Ben is not home, his absence is never felt stronger than when I am trying to get the night winded down. It's difficult even on a smooth night, but it feels impossibly hard on the nights when we have to be somewhere past what is normal bedtime for Katie and Drew, as was the case last night and tonight.
It feels chaotic here as I try to herd two overtired kids through teeth brushing and toileting and getting pajamas on and reading a bedtime book. All of the normal cuddling and gentleness of this time of night is replaced with sternness and grouchiness. "GO TO BED!" must have come out of my mouth a dozen times over the past fifteen minutes.
I am, in fact, sitting in the darkness of Katie's room typing as she finally, finally dozes off. I thought the child would never stop talking. A tired Katie goes one of two ways- full of energy and over-the-top talkative or extremely emotional and in tears about everything. Neither is easy to get to sleep. The grumbling about going to bed seems to have finally stopped from upstairs as well, so my fingers are crossed that this second night in a row of bedtime struggle is behind us.
Comments