Sleeping and breakfasting

Thursday already!?

I can't even claim to have been too busy with rehearsal because our only rehearsal so far this week was on Tuesday and about an hour before we needed to leave our director cancelled the practice (and I was so happy). We definitely have rehearsal tonight, our last one (which is a little bittersweet (though perhaps a little more sweet than bitter because we're worn out over here)).

Zoë has been maintaining her late night schedule. I was just complaining to her last night (around 2 am) that it's hard for me to be a good mommy to all my other kids when she keeps me up all night long. She was sympathetic but fussed until 4 am anyway.

I had a breakfast at the school this morning, celebrating volunteers. I've never gone to one but I decided to go this year because the girls were both so excited about it. Why they were excited I will never know because they weren't invited. But they knew so much about it, so I went.

I didn't go in 2013 because I felt like I didn't know anyone else who would be there (as an introvert I don't attend social gatherings to meet new people, as a general rule). The same was true in 2014 because Rachel switched schools. By last year I was starting to feel more like I was part of the school community but I was also a bitter diabetic and knew they wouldn't be serving 2 eggs with melted cheese, 1 piece of toast, tomatoes and green pepper for breakfast (and that's what I had for breakfast every day the last few months I was expecting Zoë). This year I felt like I could go without it being too taxing of a social engagement, so I went.

It was rather low-key, but with the way the girls were talking it up I was almost afraid it wouldn't be.


"There's going to be coffee there," Miriam warned me. "I just want you to know beforehand."

"Thanks," I said. "I think I'll be okay."

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"I'll just not have any," I said.

"Okay, that works," she said.

Later she told me that Ms. H. had to pick up forty servings of everything.

"Only thirty-eight people said they were going but she's getting forty servings of everything because what if someone shows up without responding? They'll want breakfast, too!" Miriam said.

Rachel brought home an invitation from her teacher earlier this week and asked if I was ever going to RSVP, which was funny because the RSVP date was April 10th and her teacher sent it home on April 11th! Fortunately for me, Miriam's teacher had sent me an invitation (before intercession, so about a month ago) so I'd already sent in my RSVP (otherwise I may have been one of the ones showing up without responding—how rude!!).

Anyway, I sat by my friend Marian at the breakfast and she brought up that she saw that Zoë actually took a morning nap yesterday, quite out of the ordinary for her. Later, while Marian and I were still leisurely chatting and eating, Zoë started to fuss, so I started bouncing her on my lap. I bounced her for quite some time while she droned an unhappy song.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Zoë fussed. "Uhhhhhhhhhhh!"

I flipped her from a sitting position so that she was lying down in my arms and looked into her grumpy little face. I didn't know what was wrong with her—I'd fed her some yogurt and bits of bagel, she'd nursed just before we left the house, her diaper still felt fresh, Benjamin was at home with Andrew so he wasn't torturing her, there was plenty of new things to look out so she couldn't possibly be bored...

"And what are you fussing about?" I asked.

In response Zoë let out an exhausted sigh as her eyes rolled back in her head. She was out like a light.

I FEEL THE SAME WAY, ZOË!

That nap didn't last terribly long, but she's down for another (?!?!) nap now so it's time for Benjamin's "matinee" show. See what I mean about parenting skills dwindling in the face of utter exhaustion?! This is why you can't keep me up all night, Zoë!

Side story: We had a matinee showing of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang last Saturday and Benjamin asked what a matinee was. Andrew explained that a matinee is a show that's not at night—so a morning show or an afternoon show is a matinee.

"Oh! I get matinees all the time!" he said. "Like, Daniel Tiger is a matinee and Octonauts is a matinee!"

Since Zoë joined us we've been pretty big on "morning shows" and "afternoon shows," also known as "mom-needs-a-nap shows," which I wouldn't need as much of if my baby would sleep regular hours.

Side rant: Please don't make any suggestions on what I could do to help her sleep. Just this week I had someone suggest that feeding her solids before putting her down would help her settle (ha!) while someone else suggested that a family bed would solve all her sleeping problems (hahahaha!).

Some babies just don't sleep. I don't think my little sister slept through the night until she turned fourteen (or something ridiculous like that). She just didn't need to sleep like normal people need to sleep. And it was exhausting for my mom (and everybody), but we all made it through it...including the stage where she'd wake up in the middle of the night and try to break her pogo-stick record in the storage room.

SPROING! SPROING! SPROING!

"Josie, what are you doing?!"

"Trying to break my pogostick record."

"I can see that. It's 2 am. Why aren't you in bed?"

"73, 74. Couldn't sleep. 75."

"Could you find a quieter activity?"

I literally had that exact same conversation more than a handful of times with that dear sister of mine. Unfortunately for her, she didn't learn to read until a bit later in life than some, and didn't learn to really enjoy reading until even later. She loves reading now but as a sleepless child she did not.

Fortunately for me, Rachel learned to read with a fiery burning passion rather young, so when she is up in the middle of the night our conversations usually go like this:

"Rachel, what are you doing?"

"Reading."

"I can see that. It's 2 am. Why aren't you sleeping?"

"I couldn't sleep/had a bad dream."

"Okay, well, finish that chapter and then try sleeping again, alright?"

"Alright."

Anyway, I'd better hop off because Zoë is, in fact, enjoying an early afternoon nap and Benjamin is still begging for his matinee...and I was up with a grumpy baby until 4 am so I'm going to get some shuteye before our rehearsal tonight.