Midnight Mumblings

The latest installment of Midnight Mumblings, where one of the kids walks into the room three-quarters asleep and says something nonsensical. Tonight it was Elizabeth again.

"It was the floor. It wasn't the books. It was the juice, so it didn't get hurt."

She says this while showing me her water bottle.

Elizabeth also wandered into the bedroom a couple nights ago and said, "I was just checking where everyone was. Where did everyone go?" Everyone was in their proper bed. Except her. She didn't remember getting up when I asked her the next day.

So far, Colleen has always been coherent, at least when talking to me.

What reading level is required to put someone to sleep?

Colleen seems to be able to go to sleep with someone of a fourth-grade level reading out loud to her. Robert brought a very nice reading progress report home with him from school today that has him reading at a fourth-grade level.

We got a full display of this tonight, as Robert and Colleen kicked Cate out of their room at bedtime, and Robert read poems to his little sister. Cate and I heard one of our favorites, Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too, in which Robert didn't even hesitate with the words "mulligan stew."

After that poem, Robert came out to ask us if we'd heard it, and I went back in with him to "close" bedtime and get what I was sure would be an easy save. Colleen surely wouldn't need more than a couple verses of Silent Night and she would be out like a light.

Except when I got in there, Colleen was already in her bed, out like a light. So Robert gets a complete-game win.

Sleepy girl

What she said

Was it wrong that you had to go on even numbers?

That's what Elizabeth just stumbled into our room to ask us. She used to do this all the time when she was littler, stumble out into the living room, rub her eyes, while we were watching TV, and say something completely incoherent.

Then again, Robert has been known to do the same.

I kind of miss those days.

Yep, definitely progress

Colleen just completed her third night in a row sleeping the whole night through in her own bed and waking up with a dry pull-up. Nonna has been bribing her with a trip to Wonderment, a shop she loves in the neighborhood, for staying in her bed all night Seems that may have put her over the top.

It's good to be home

Another Division III basketball season is over and I'm glad to be back in Minneapolis after what seemed like a fairly surreal week in Virginia, driving familiar roads and such.

For some reason I'm wired and can't get to sleep, so I heard Colleen get up to get herself some water. I usually get up to intercept her in the hallway so she heads back to her own bedroom, but as I went toward the bathroom, this three-quarters asleep little girl was making some strange noises:

Sssssssssssssluurrrrrrrp ... mmmahhhhhh ... ssssssssssssluurrrrrrrp ... mmmahhhhhh ... ssssssssssssluurrrrrrrp ... mmmahhhhhh.

When I got there she was stepping down off the foot stool with her face all wet. No cup in the bathroom, so she had to improvise at 11:40 at night.

A developmental milestone, perhaps

Colleen still tends to wake up in the middle of the night, more often than not. Sometimes I can succeed in getting her back into her own bed without too much issue, sometimes I'm lazy at 3 a.m. and let her sleep with us. (Heck, she climbs in on Cate's side, so most of the time I don't notice her coming in.)

But lately I've been up at all hours because of D3hoops.com's March Madness, busy time of year. If the light is on in the bedroom when Colleen wakes up, she won't come in. Last night was one of those nights, and she was padding around in her feety pajamas out in the hallway. And then ... lo and behold, she goes to the bathroom!

It sounded like all was well, but after a few minutes she was back in the hallway, whimpering. I called to her to come into the room, figuring she was just looking to crawl into bed, and she sniffled and said, "It doesn't work!"

She walked in the door, with her pajamas off except wrapped around one foot. She got the PJ's off but couldn't get them back on.

I helped her get all zipped up and such. And she went back to her bed.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ...

Light up the Night

With Elizabeth on a special trip with Daddy to Iowa, I decided Robert and Colleen would get a special treat too: ice cream for dessert, as many bedtime stories as they could stand and a double sleepover with Mom. My throat is paying for the bedtime stories promised but we had a great time. We had just been to the library so we went to bed loaded with 12 new books (one of which was a 4 book treasury). We stayed up to 9 p.m. - 2 hours past bedtime. It was great fun and we all were very ready for sleep. But the sparks came after lights out.

In my family we always got new pajamas on Christmas Eve so we'd wake up in brand new PJs on Christmas morning. We've continued that tradition with our 3. This year (and the 2 previous years at least) the kids got coordinating fleece PJs from The Children's Place.

Someone kicked me in the face around 1:30 a.m. and I woke up. That someone was Robert sleeping upside down so his feet were on the pillow. When I looked down he rolled over again and he sort of sparkled. That looked weird so I put on my eyeglasses. And I saw Colleen shift and sparkle too! It was static electricity from their fleece pajamas.

I admit that I poked them a few times just to see it again.

Bedtime for bozos

I've been dusting off my repertoire of late. With Cate out of town I'm in charge of the bedtimes again, which is something that usually only happens when Cate works nights.

If Cate's in the house, Colleen and Robert (Colleen, mostly) just aren't willing to be put to bed by me. We'll give it another try when Cate comes home. But so far, somehow, the three nights Cate has been gone have all been nice and peaceful.

It reminds me of how the whole children bedtime routine got started, of course, with Elizabeth. We had a devil of a time getting her to sleep when she was little. (Actually, up until about the age of seven, but who's counting?) It always involved singing, some swaying, turning around in a circle, anything to calm her down and get her to sleep.

Since it was Christmastime, of course, Christmas carols were top of the mind, and one of them has stayed in the rotation for a decade: Silent Night. (If you have kid sleeping troubles, give it a try. Great song!) Elizabeth's other two songs were Up on the Roof and You Are My Sunshine.

When Robert came along, he was content to listen to Elizabeth's songs for a while, but eventually expressed a desire for his own. So he got I've Been Working on the Railroad.

And of course, Cate has her own set of songs. She tends to sing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, and An Irish Lullaby. Neither of us knows the other's songs. And the kids seem to understand that just fine.

Bed check

It's 7:45 p.m. (Central) Do you know where your kids are?

Elizabeth is sewing a Civil war cap so she can better put herself in the role of Confederate spy for a creative writing assignment. Unfortunately the hat was put away by the time I got the camera out.

Robert is obviously not ready to settle down yet. He was coming down the stairs because he saw two stars that were "awesome" and wanted to share.

Colleen is asleep. She had a long day playing with Amelia, shopping/walking with Nonna, making pie crust, and sliding down hills. There's not enough stain remover in the world for that particular hobby.

Something new

Colleen is embarking on this great adventure of which she really has no concept. She has spent just one night away from Cate in three-plus years, hasn't been to Minnesota since before she could walk and has barely seen my parents. But she will be doing all three in fairly short order as Cate takes all three to Minneapolis the week before we move.

It's with that in mind that I have been putting Colleen to bed every night this week. Not that I've never put her to bed before, of course, since Cate has worked basically every Sunday and Thursday night for the past year and I've put all three to bed myself. But if Cate's home, Colleen gets her for bedtime, because she refuses to be put to sleep by me.

So this week it's been sink or swim so that Colleen can get used to anyone other than Cate at bedtime. And although there were some issues the first night because she could hear Cate talking to Robert in the next room, lately it's gone fairly well. I've often had sleep success with Colleen like I wrote about with Robert earlier this year. I can leave the room with Colleen partially awake and she will finish the job.

She still sometimes gets up at night before midnight, wandering out looking for Mom. But it's not actually Cate she's looking for, just someone to give her some company. It's very easy -- a sip of water, a hug, some soothing words and back to bed. If she's awake enough, she'll even walk back to her room herself.

Easy as pie. Good luck, Mom and Dad.

The Robert dialogues

On a recent night Robert asked why Chik Fil A uses cows in its ads.

I told him, well, the cows want you to eat more chicken instead of eating cow.

That's what Mom said!

That's because she's right. You eat cow, you know.

I do?

You do. What comes from a cow?

Dairy.

That's true, yes. What does the meat of a cow get made into?

Milk?

No silly. Steak comes from cows.

Elizabeth eats cow!

Hamburgers come from cows.

Ohhhhhhhhh

You eat pig, too

No, Elizabeth eats pig. She loves ham.

That's true, ham comes from pigs. But so does bacon, and you love bacon.

Dad, I only eat bacon once a day!

Once a day? Don't you mean more like once a month?

Once a day when mom puts it on my plate.

And so does pork chops. What other animals do we eat?

Swan?

Hmm, no, people eat duck and goose but I've never heard of anyone eating swan. You've eaten lamb.

Really?

Yes, at Christmas, that was lamb.

You told Elizabeth it was steak!

That's true, we did. Elizabeth loved the lamb. She wants us to get more.

Dad, did you know, some people eat dog.

That's true -- I don't know anyone who eats dog, though. Some people eat horse, too. Have you ever had fish?

Yes, when you and me and Elizabeth went to visit Nonna and Da this summer, we had fish. It was after you went home.

Oh really? What kind of fish?

I don't remember.

One time when Nonna came out here to visit us, I made salmon on the grill. Salmon is fish.

I know that, dad.

Huh?

"I think you should get train tracks so you can send me e-mail."
-- Robert, 12:52 a.m.

Huh? I thought the Internet was a set of tubes!
Yeah, that never gets old!

Sleepy boy

Robert is a fairly typical 5-year-old boy. He's loud, rambunctious and almost never just walks. Everywhere he goes is at full speed.

But he does one thing better than either of his sisters: He sleeps.

Elizabeth couldn't sleep in her own bed through the night on a consistent basis until she was about 8 years old. And she was getting coddled to sleep until about a year ago. And Colleen, well, shoot, she's not quite 3 yet, so it's hard to expect too much of her. She sleeps alright and it isn't hard to get her to sleep, but she requires the most attention.

So lately, Cate's been working at 6 on Thursday, 3 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. That's a three-nights-in-four stretch where it's just me putting all three to bed. Robert gets the brunt of it. And he's been the star.

The girls share a room. Typically, Elizabeth reads on her own and I read Colleen and Robert a book in the girls' room so I can get Colleen to bed more easily. And when reading time is over, Robert goes to his room, gets under the covers and goes to sleep.

That's it. Sometimes I can come in and tuck him in without losing containment on Colleen, but not all of the time. And he's a big boy -- he gets it done all by himself.

Not that Robert stays in bed all night, but he's pretty easy to deal with. Sometimes he gets up in the middle of the night and plays night watchman -- he'll walk around the upstairs and check in on everyone, make sure they're OK.

One night recently, during his rounds, he came into our room and checked both sides of the bed (I wasn't asleep yet), then came back to my side. I asked him how his rounds were going and he said, "I'm cold, and my blanket is cold!" So I invited him to bring him and his blanket in to my side of the bed to get warmed up.

You can't do that with Colleen and you couldn't have done that with Elizabeth at that age, because it would've been tears when you sent her back to bed. But after about three minutes I told Robert it was time to go back to his room.

And he did.

Because he's our best sleeper.