At The End of The Day

The day is officially over when the kids go to bed. Or more specifically, when the kids go to sleep. "Going to bed" and "going to sleep" are unfortunately not interchangeable terms in this house.

Some nights it goes well and by eight, or just after, we have three kids sleeping. Other nights it carries on much later than that with multiple visits by both mom and dad telling kids to get back in bed, stay in bed, stop whining, or all of the above.

But when those glorious moments of silence pass and we realize the kids are asleep, the fun begins.

Yup, that's when things get crazy and we sink into the couch. We sleep with our eyes open by staring at something on the TV. We have conversations, sometimes even meaningful ones. But usually not. Usually the most intelligent conversation we can handle at that point is analyzing the show we've just watched (currently Homeland Season 2 for those who care). For instance:

Tracey: "If they hit and run someone, shouldn't the car have been dented and covered in blood?"
Jordan: "It wasn't dented and covered in blood".
Tracey: "I know, that's my point. A human being should make a sizeable dent in a car".
Jordan: Silence.

See, we get deep.

And then, more often later than we should, we roll ourselves into bed. A bit more conversation ensues, although at that point any amount of conversation is too much for Jordan. His response to anything I say or ask is "Ok night night". Literally.

In seconds he's asleep next to me. Some nights I'm asleep as quickly as he is, but other nights I lay awake with anxiety, worrying about the boys or one of the million other things my little brain fixates on.

Either way, when sleep comes it is magical. If we're lucky and the kids don't wake in the night (ha!), or I don't have to pee (double ha!), or one of us isn't tossing and turning with "jimmy legs" we sleep like corpses until the alarm goes off in the morning.

And by alarm, I mean a child either crying in their bed asking to get up, or standing at our bedside trying to climb in.

There we go, starting the whole new day thing again. I love my kids dearly...but is it bedtime yet?

---
Thanks Ellen, for the linkup and prompt. Anyone got some good ideas for prompts that you want a whole bunch of moms to write about? Do share!

Update: I just read all of the other posts that have linked up to Ellen (I wait till I'm done writing so what others have written doesn't influence how I'm looking at the prompt). Everyone else wrote something really lovely about their kids. I wrote about how tired I am. Woops? Guess I win mother of the year award today!