Tuckered out

I feel like today was a productive day, for the most part. As Miriam said, "We're not having a boring sick day! We're doing lots of work!" She was excited to be working so hard after the ennui of taking things easy while trying to get over this cold.

She's still got a slight cough but Benjamin is still rather croupy so we aren't out of the woods yet.

Anyway, we decided it was time to winterize the girls' beds. We pulled out their comforters, washed their sheets, and got everything nice and fresh (and much warmer). Miriam was nervous about allowing me to wash her silky blankey (the one my friend Crystal made for Rachel, but which Miriam has claimed as her favourite).

"Please can we just not wash my silky blankey?" she asked.

"I think it would be better if we did. That way it won't smell funny."

"But it doesn't smell funny," she insisted. "It smells like..." She paused to sniff her blanket then asked, "What smells better than soup? Because I think my blankey smells like that."

In the end I convinced her to wash her blanket and she vigilantly listened for the washing machine to finish its cycle and then reminded me to get her blanket into the dryer so that it could be finished by bedtime. This was before lunchtime, so I was pretty confident that I'd be able to get it back to her by bedtime.

As it turns out, she had every reason to be concerned that she'd be missing her blanket at bedtime because I just checked on her and she didn't have it. It was still in the dryer!


We spent the entire afternoon cleaning and after Rachel came home from school we were still finishing up the last few things on my list. Working together we got everything done—aside from folding the laundry—by the time dinner was ready.

We ate dinner, did the dishes, and had story time and then I had the girls get into their pyjamas and took them across the street to our neighbour's house, where they'd wait for Daddy to come home from school. Andrew and I both ended up scheduling meetings for this evening and though I tried to change mine, it ended up easier to schedule a sitter than to rearrange three other people's schedules—so off to the neighbour's the girls went, and off to my primary meeting Benjamin and I went.

I considered dragging all three kids along with me but it's a school night and our meetings can drag on for a while (particularly at this time of the year when we're arranging next year's classes and so forth) and since Andrew was due home at 8:30 I figured it would be best if he could just pick the girls up and put them to bed.

And he did.

Kind of.

When I got home, I struggled to the door, lugging the diaper bag, my primary binder, and Benjamin in his carseat. Instead of fishing out my keys I rang the doorbell. No one answered so I set down Benjamin and my binder and dug the keys out of my purse.

I opened the door and there was Andrew, fast asleep on the couch. I don't know how he sleeps through things like doorbells and alarm clocks and telephones ringing, but somehow he manages.

Benjamin was super excited to see Daddy and the minute I got him out of his carseat he ran over to Andrew and started cheerily smacking him in the face, delivering slobbery kisses, and squealing rather loudly. Even this didn't fully wake up Daddy.

Eventually, though, I was able to wake Andrew up enough for him to admit that he had finally succumbed to whatever's been going around our family and that he should probably go to bed somewhere besides—you know—the couch. As he stumbled off to bed he said, "Oh, Rachel might still be awake. I didn't ever tell her to stop reading."

Sure enough, that child was still reading.

"You need to stop reading and go to sleep. It's super late!" I told her.

"Is it midnight?" she asked.

"Almost! It's past ten o'clock!"

"Whoa!" she said. "I've got to get to bed!"

So, she turned off her light and went to sleep. In her rush to fall asleep she must have neglected to check for her favourite blanket (the one my friend Emily crocheted), which was also in the dryer.

And I only noticed this after I got Benjamin settled down in his bed (a half hour ago).

Miriam apparently had a difficult time going to bed. She couldn't find her water bottle and was so terribly upset by this that Rachel lent hers to Miriam for the night; she couldn't find one of her slippers; she couldn't find her favourite blankey (and no one thought to look in the dryer?)—you would never have guessed that we'd cleaned her room from top to bottom earlier in the day and had everything (save her blankey) in its proper place. Who knows where all those lost items have ended up!?

Both girls are now tucked in with their favourite blankets. Benjamin is also tucked in, though he hasn't acquired a favourite blanket (and actually seems rather antagonistic toward blankets). Andrew is tucked in. I'm the only one awake, so I guess I'd better tuck the rest of the dishes into the dishwasher and then tuck myself into bed as well.