I don't know how two humans can survive on such little sleep. I'm talking about Mike and me. It was hard when we had one offspring. And two.... well that was a little harder but we had expected the worst, so in Zoë's 1st year we thought we had it good. Now with three...... Well, let me tell you about the number three. You're outnumbered in a big way. It's the tipping point. It's the point where my line has been drawn. It's the Twilight Zone of never ending sleepless nights, picturing myself wandering around in a personal hell where I'm exhausted but can't find anywhere to lay down, and the floor is covered with little spines so even the hard floor is not an option. I remember wondering how we'd possibly get through interrupted nights with Vince waking up once or twice. Now I look back on that time when we only had one little person to upset our sleep, and I laugh pathetically, before it turns into a cry.... and I look in the mirror and notice the ever deepening wrinkles and dark circles around my eyes.
Let me paint a picture of our typical sleep/wake cycle: First we have Vince-who has always been an early riser, coming into our room anywhere from 5am onwards, regardless of the f*$&ing stop light clock still being red, orange, or any other color on Earth. There's no amount of candy/rewards/stickers that will keep that boy in bed until that light turns green. Now, because Vince gets up so early, he's generally easy to get to bed.... walking himself into bed, practically begging for it around 7-7:30 each night. Great, off he goes, that was easy. But then we turn around..... and there she is, little miss spit fire. Her hair standing up in the overly dry and electric filled air, looking at us with those fiery eyes, staring us down, with this grin on her face as if she's saying "game on Mom and Dad, mmuuuaaaahhahhaa!!!".
She instantly screams that she wants to run around naked, whining that she then needs milk, or needs to find that special baby doll, or just plain doesn't want to go to bed. We close in on her, we're about to make the capture, and she quickly darts to the book shelf in a frantic last effort that maybe we'll fall for the "I want you to read me a book" routine again. I admit it, this one gets me. How can you say no to reading to your little girl... even if I know she'll slip away from your side about 2 pages into it and go take a few victory laps around the house, screaming like a banshee, while then moving on to a second set of whining about something. Never to return to the book again. Eventually, we're able to corner her and trick her into getting a piggy back ride-of which we ride her straight to her crib and dump her in. And it truly feels like unloading a weight.
The whole thing can take upwards of an hour sometimes. Meanwhile there's poor little Luca, just trying to survive, eating old cheerios and raisins off the kitchen floor cause we probably forgot to feed him earlier that night. He's still pretty easy to get to sleep, but he still wakes up pretty regularly through the night. 1 or 2 times is all it takes, after dealing with Zoë and knowing that Vince will speed through his red light clock in the morning when he beelines it to our bed and smiles at me about 1/2 inch away from my face and makes noise until I wake up and see him. This combination is bad, and it's taking its toll on us.
Luckily our kids are ridiculously cute, and there's enough amazing moments with them that make all of this worth while. Right now I'm just too tired to keep this blog going the way I want too!
Here's a set of pictures I've put aside to eventually put on the blog, and right now I can't even remember when this happened, how pathetic! I remember it was a kids concert sometime back in Feb I think, or maybe January, and it was at the Coolidge Corner Theater. Who knows what kids band it was. I remember Zoë LOVING the idea of dancing in the aisles with the other kids.... while Vince watched curiously in his seat, but did surrender to the music once in a while and actually clapped his hands and sang along to "Flying Purple People Eater". As for remembering anything else about it, forget it. I don't even remember if Luca was there. I don't think he was, but I couldn't even tell you who was watching him or where he was during this!
favorite picture of Zoë dancing in the aisle
Luca turned 1 January 9th, and I've been meaning to do my yearly picture with our kids in an adult t-shirt.....watching them grow into it every year. I finally got around to doing Luca's 1st birthday photo in Daddy's t-shirt. It's only a month or two late.... poor Luca is definitely the victim of 3rd kid syndrome, he's lucky he has any pictures at all. I do still plan however, to do a baby book for him. Hopefully he'll get it by the time he's 30.
