Sleep

I’ve heard rumors of these creatures called “Teenager,” who sleep until noon.  Creatures who actually enjoy sleep.  I’ve even heard they get angry when you try to wake them up in the morning.

We have no such creatures here.

Let me take you through a typical night last week.

After roughly (maybe too roughly) forcing a kicking and screaming Luca into his pajamas, we’ll turn out the lights and threaten Luca that he’ll never watch TV again unless he gets some sleep.  Elijah looks pleadingly into our eyes and we turn out the lights.

For the next 2 hours we hear thumping from upstairs.  Dull thumping of a child digging a hole through a Rita Hayworth poster.  Occasionally, we hear Eli begging Luca to go to sleep.  This sometimes escalates into a screaming match, where I’m forced to burst into their room yelling, “GO! TO! SLEEPPPPP!”

After the ensuing cry fit, there’s quiet until about midnight, when Luca decides he’d had his daily supply of 15 minutes of shut eye.

Luca will stroll into our room screaming, “I want to go downstairs!  I want to go downstairs!”

The most sober of us (Diana) then tries to explain that there are no good tv shows on at midnight and he needs his sleepies. 

This results in another bout of screaming.

Sometimes we give him a bottle.  Sometimes we let him sleep with us.  Sometimes we go sleep with him in his bunk bed.  Regardless, no one sleeps.  There are just house of him flopping around like a fish, occasionally demanding a glass of water.  Or to have his diaper changed.  Or to have his blanket on or off or chucked out the window.

This goes on until about 7am, when Elijah wakes up, bright eyed and bushy tailed and requests (rather sweetly) that we all go downstairs and watch Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Luca is usually fast asleep at this point.