And the little one said, "roll over, roll over"

Musical beds is still a nightly occurrence in our house... here is a typical evening...


19:30 - both boys to their rooms for story and quiet time
20:00 - lights out
20:01 - Return Daniel to his bed and give Caleb his second kiss
20:03 - Return Daniel to his bed and give Caleb his third kiss
20:05 - Return Daniel to his bed and give Caleb his last kiss
20:07 - Return Daniel to his bed
20:09 - Return Daniel to his bed
Are you getting the idea?
At some point between 20:00 and 21:30 both boys will finally be asleep - although I have to say, Caleb is pretty good about going to sleep...

Some time between the children's bedtime and our bedtime, Caleb will wake and either ask to sleep in our bed, or just go straight there. Now.. before you say we shouldn't allow it, what you may not know is that Caleb is having serious night-terrors at the moment. The terror that he portrays when he wakes from one of these nightmares is definitely not "put-on" - and he seems to sleep better in our bed.

When it is bedtime for the adults, Daniel will generally wake. A month or so ago we moved him from his crib into a toddler bed. Since then, as many parents have experienced, it is virtually impossible to keep him in his bed. We have found that sometimes giving him 100ml of milk will settle him again... so we change his diaper, give him his milk and pray that he goes back to sleep.

We then have the question of whether to move Caleb back into his own bed or let him sleep in ours. Most of the time we decide to let sleeping children be, which means that one of us has to sleep in his bed. Now, based on the fact that my long suffering husband works really long hours, and drives for two hours a day, I usually send him to Caleb's bed and I crawl in next to Caleb in our bed...

Then there is rest.. for about two hours. At which point I will wake up with Daniel running around the bedrooms trying to wake everyone up (especially Caleb) so that we will play cars with him. The only way I can persuade him to lie down is to let him lie next to Caleb in our bed. So I settle Daniel and make sure that both are covered with the duvet. I then creep down the passage to Daniel's room and crawl into his bed and try and sleep.

Within an hour I wake to the sound of the boys fighting over the pillows.. I charge down the passage to try and get to them before they wake The Master. It is at around this point that my patience completely leaves me and I grab Daniel and stomp (as quietly as possible) back up the passage to Daniel's room, closing the door behind me I prepare for the onslaught of tantrum that only a tired, grumpy little boy can deliver. I sit on his bed and pretend my eardrums are not bursting as he yells blue murder and undoubtedly swears at me in that mumbled jumble of no sense words that toddlers yell when you upset them. Once it occurs to my youngest "angel" that I am not going to back down on this, he will lie down and go back to sleep.

I then creep for the 6000th time up the passage back to my room, only to find that Caleb did not want to be alone in the bed so he has crawled into bed with Adam. Which leaves me alone in our large bed... ahhh.. finally... sleep sweet sleep....

zzzzz
zzzzzzz
zzzzzzzz

My eyes are forced open by my brain telling me that all is not as it should be... there is a weird sliding, scratching and clicking sound in my bedroom....what can it be?

slide
scratch
click
slide
scratch
click

As one eye focuses and the other is forcing itself open, I am faced with Daniel forcefully feeding our DVD player old crisps that he has found in some vacuum forsaken corner of my bedroom.. and the worst of it is, he has this sinister little grin on his face that says, " too late old lady, you will have to move faster than that if you are to thwart Daniel Master of Destruction".

I give up.. who needs a DVD player anyway... and as I crawl once more up the passage to prepare tea and breakfast for The Masters, a thought seeps into my fuzzy brain....

This too shall pass.. one day I will long for the sweet little chubby fingers that left marks on my walls and destroyed everything in their path..

I am blessed... love you boys..