The past 12 hours
Last night Howard and I sat down at 10:20 pm to watch two episodes of Bones. This late night indulgence was allowable because today is Saturday and we can all sleep in a little. We didn’t finish watching the second episode until about 1 am because Gleek was having an extended night terror. That is where the thrashes around and cries as if she’s hurting. Last night she even talked to us and responded to questions. But she was never truly awake because this morning she doesn’t remember a bit of it.
We also had to scold Link repeatedly because he kept playing in his bed rather than trying to go to sleep. He even went so far as to turn on his lamp, but point it at his pillow so we couldn’t see it. This led to a scorched pillowcase and a worried Link. In hindsight what he needed was human interaction. Lately he has been very much in his own world even when he is with people. I need to spend more time drawing him out. I also need to be limiting his video game time. Link was still awake at 1 am when Howard and I finished the second episode. He finally went to sleep, very distressed because both Howard and I had no more patience for him and we scolded him. Being yelled at is very distressing for him. So much so that he often reacts to angry voices even if they aren’t aimed at him. I know this, but at 1 am I have a hard time being the best parent I can be. Also all the noise woke up Patches.
Patches woke crying at 1:20 am because Gleek was noisy and the interactions with Howard and I and Link were noisy. The major cause of Patches distress was his eyes. They were all red and goopy. I realized that what I thought was just allergy eyes, was in fact an eye infection. So we pinned the poor boy down and put drops in his eyes. He was only half awake, so calming him after that was hard. In the end he and I curled up on the couches downstairs watching Blues Clues. I remember turning the tape on, but none of the rest. I woke up on the couch 7 hours later when Patches started bouncing around cheerfully.
After a night like that, today should have been a total bust. I expected to drag and get nothing done. Instead I got up and made waffles for breakfast. Then required all my kids to do their work and helped them. It wasn’t all cheerful, but it all got done. This wasn’t just picking up either. I made them do some scrubbing. We moved couches and vacuumed underneath them. All this effort was rewarded by my finally finding our third telephone handset. It has been missing for 6 months, forcing me to run upstairs any time I needed to answer the phone. It us now just under 12 hours after I fell into a grumpy/exhausted slumber to the sound of Blues Clues. I’ve only been awake for 3 and a half hours. I’ve done more work than I usually manage in 12 hours. Apparently I’ve gone into one of those exhausted/overdrive modes where I become super effective. Unfortunately those are followed by a crash day where nothing gets done. Maybe if I force myself to slow down and nap this afternoon I can skip the crash. That would be nice.