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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Sleeping bags are for dumb people

Aimee asked if the kids could spend the night on Tuesday. This a little rundown of how the evening went.

4:00 p.m. Picked up Gaige, Nathan and Kaitlyn.
4:03 p.m. Yelled at said boys who immediately started bickering in the rear seat.
4:15 p.m. Arrive at Bear Swamp location.
4:16 p.m. Yell at Nathan for letting the dog into the backyard where the chickens are running around.

For about an hour, they play outside peacefully. Of course, I forgot to put Off on Kaitlyn, so she gets 4 huge mosquito bites on her leg.

5:30 p.m. David calls to say he's coming home early because he is feeling sick from a cold. Oh great, no help from that quarter! At least when he's sick he doesn't require a lot of attention. Just kind of crawls into his den and disappears until he feels better.

The rest of the evening goes fairly well. We have bathtime, we have storytime, we eat ice cream and brush teeth. Here comes the fun part--bedtime!

9:30 p.m. While the children are bathing, I put the boys' sleeping bags on the floor of the front guest room. Normally, they sleep in the bed, but my sister-in-law and her son are visiting this weekend and I had already put clean sheets on the beds and didn't want to go through another change. Silly me to think that a six-and-a-half-year-old would think it was cool to sleep on the floor! No, no, no! Nathan was fine with it and climbed right in. On the other hand, Gaige defiantly crossed his arms and glared at me with an evil look in his eye and declared, "Sleeping on the floor is for dumb people!"

No amount of reasoning, explaining that this is what kids do when they have a sleepover, threatening, would change his mind. He was adamant that he was not sleeping on the floor. Of course, the whole time this is going on, David is blissfully snoring away in his drugged slumber, while I am sweating and frustrated that a six-year-old is winning the battle of the wills.

10:30 p.m. I finally give it up as a lost cause and let them sleep on the bed on top of the quilt. I suppose, if you look at it in a skewed sort of way, it was a compromise.

11:00 p.m. I take a shower in the guest bath, because there's no way I can go to sleep caked in sweat from 10 rounds with a six-year-old.

12:00 midnight. I fall asleep on the sofa, exhausted.

6:30 a.m. Kaitlyn wakes up. The coffee isn't even ready yet. Here we go again!


4 comments:

Amy said...

LOL You poor thing! A battle of the wills with kids is a tough one to win. I think you reached a good compromise though.

Susan said...

Yeah, that kid is tough, let me tell you. He and I butt heads all the time, because I'm just as stubborn as he is!

Karen, author of "My Funny Dad, Harry" said...

I'm surprised you ha that battle, kids usually like sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag I'd think. How'd he get so smart already knowing that it isn't comfortable that way?

Susan said...

Karen, all I can say is he is a guy who knows what he does and doesn't want to do! He has become a little more reasonable, though, now that he's almost 8. I know I sure don't like sleeping on the floor!