Is it always like this?

If you've not read my previous entry, you may wish to jump down to "She's Back!" before digging in here.

So... now Theresa is out the door, and on her way to the apparent bliss of seeing a real, live television star in New York City (of all things!)

Gee, so much has happened since Sunday night, I'm not sure that I can recall everything properly, so I'll just focus on some of the things that I'm pretty sure about. Let's see... when Theresa left, it must have been about 7:30. So I guess the kids had already been fed, as we had generally been trying to get the boys to bed by 7:00. With all of the previous activity, obviously no one was in bed yet. So I rounded up the boys , changed them into their pajamas, and headed upstairs.

The boys have been without their father many, many times, and are used to his comings and goings by now. But this time was not the same. Mommy left them. Mommy had never left them before. And they didn't want to get in their cribs. They wanted to get in the "green bed". (Our bed has a green coverlet on it.) And they wanted me to lie down with them. So I laid Grayson down, and then I laid Noah down, and I lay down in between them. Noah was content to just have me near him, but Grayson kept trying to burrow into me. He just couldn't get close enough. Eventually they both settled down, their movements becoming less restive, their breathing quieter. About 8:15, Mattea came up and woke me up and said it was time for her to go to bed. So I slithered out from between the boys and helped Mattea get ready for bed.

It is customary for Mattea to sleep with her mom when I am out of town. Theresa still keeps the body pillow from her pregnancy days for these nights. She will place the body pillow between the two of them to keep Mattea's active elbows, legs and feet from finding her back or bottom. As this practice had already become standardized, I told Mattea that she could sleep with me if she wanted to. Naturally, she wanted to. So after tooth brushing and hair brushing (actually hair picking, as I had to dig up an old hair pick that Theresa had in the drawer, because Theresa had taken all of the brushes with her. Why Theresa had a hair pick I don't know. Perhaps she used to have an afro.) I read Mattea her night-time story, and we placed her in bed next to the boys.

Even with a king-sized bed, two two-year-olds and a five-year-old take up a fair amount of space. I wandered off to let Mattea settle down and follow her brothers into slumberland. Now, it had never been my intention to let the boys sleep with us. I had planned all along to move them into their cribs before I went to bed.

So after Mattea fell asleep, I cradled Grayson carefully into my arms and deposited him gently into his crib. One down. Noah was not so cooperative. As I tried to lift him, he rolled over onto his stomach. Fortunately, I was able to carefully scoop him up and gently lay him into his crib. Two down.

Theresa had only been gone a couple of hours and had just hopped on her plane and I was already missing her!

5:00 AM: Pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad. "No... get in on this side so you don't wake Mattea up!"

5:50 AM: Pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad. "No... get in over here so you don't wake up Mattea and Grayson!"

One's perspective on life is greatly influenced, I'm sure, by the situations that one finds oneself in. There's little better than lying in bed, looking at the ceiling, with all of your kids cuddling up next to you for love and support, lying warm and content in each others company.

Fast forward to Monday night. Same scenario. The boys go to sleep in the green bed, while Mattea watches television downstairs. But on Monday, I roused myself in time to get Mattea ready for bed. This night though, the boys were taking up more real estate. They were both kind of laid out sideways when Mattea was ready for bed. So I asked her to go to sleep in her bed, and told her that I would move her into my bed when I went to sleep. (By now, you've figured out that there is a lot of sleeping child movement in our house!)

As I'm getting ready for bed, I move Grayson into his crib uneventfully. Noah, on the other hand, rolls over onto his belly again just as I get ready to move him. I can't get him back onto his back, so I'm carrying him, with his arms and legs dangling about, into his room. As we get to his crib... "I don't want to sleep in my crib!" As he continues to raise a ruckus I quickly back out and place him back into the green bed, so as not to awaken his still sleeping brother. Then I go collect Mattea and place her into the green bed. Then I climb in. Keep in mind I skipped the part during the day of getting them dressed and ready for school, actually getting them to school, the laundry; you know, the stuff that has to go on anyway.

5:00 AM: Pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad. "No... get in over here so you don't wake up Mattea and Noah!"

Tuesday night... Mom's coming home!

This time it's Grayson that wakes up as I'm transferring him to his crib. So back he goes into the green bed. But Mom's home now, so all is right with the world.

2:00 AM: Pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad, pad. "No... get in over here so you don't wake up Mattea and Grayson and Mommy!"

I perch on my side lest Noah be forced onto the floor (I'd put him on the inside, but then he would start messing with Grayson and then they'd both be up.) I wonder if they make wider beds?

I do have to revisit Tuesday morning though. I had taken the boys and Mattea downstairs and gotten them started with breakfast. I then headed back upstairs and hopped into the shower. As I was finishing, I heard the sound of fighting brothers and crying coming from down below. So I hurriedly dried off, dressed and headed downstairs. Before I finished dressing, the noise died down, but I still wanted to see what was going on.

As I came around the banister I saw Grayson sitting in his timeout rocking chair in the hallway, parked inches away from the door to the guestroom, sitting quietly and facing the door. Mattea had seen fit to assign him a timeout, and he actually complied with Mattea's disciplinary course of action! (Would that they might only be so cooperative with us!)

Theresa left for barely more than forty-eight hours... long enough for me to gain even more appreciation for her world in my absence. Perhaps next time Jon Stewart would like a couple days off in San Diego.