Later in the evening

The invasion of the K’s completely nixed any chance of a normal bedtime tonight. (Kiki’s four friends all have names that begin with the same letter of the alphabet as her name. They think this is the coolest thing ever.) In fact I’ve spent most of the evening segregating Link, Gleek, and Patch away from the four K’s because Kiki wants to have her friends for herself. Naturally Link, Gleek, and Patch all want to be where these cool new visitors are, particularly since the visitors brought fistfuls of pixie stix. I managed the trick by letting Link play on my computer and giving Gleek and Patches a movie upstairs. Also I gave them lots of treats. There was no way I was going to be able to get the younger ones to bed on time. I didn’t even try. This means that at 9:30 an over-stimulated, over-sugared Gleek was ready to melt into a puddle of scream.

I lured Gleek and Patch into bed by saying that they could snuggle together in the same bed. They love this kind of ‘sleepover.’ It lasted about 3 minutes before they squabbled and I separated them for the night. Link also wanted to be where the party was, but didn’t argue too hard when I sent him to bed with his gameboy. I’ll deal with making him stop playing later. Of course the four K’s were filling the house with loud laughter and loudish music during this period. I’m glad they’re having fun, but I ache for quiet with no children in it.

During the middle of all the chaos, Howard called to give me an update on when he’d be home. Mid-call he had his phone shanghaied by Julie Wright who wanted to say hello to me. I love Julie. At cons we go out to lunch and have delightful conversations about all sorts of stuff. Howard also passed along greetings from other friends. It made me realize how much I wanted to be there at Conduit rather than in my kitchen full of teenagers and children. I want to be here too. I want Kiki to have her wonderful teenage girl sleep over. I guess I’m just a little sad I have choose between a once-per-year birthday or a once-per-year convention. Or maybe I’m sad that my meetings with these friends are so rare. I may have to change that. I should make some plans to get together with them all. I don’t want to have to wait until next year.

For now Gleek and Patch have dropped into exhausted slumber. Next I need to tackle Link and the four K’s.