Expectations

Quinn went hunting with Scott Holmes. 'Tis hunting season, and he really enjoys it, so go, dearest, and enjoy your time in the woods.

However, I do not sleep well when he is gone. I get paranoid of noises in the house. Thursday night I fared pretty well, but decided that maybe on Friday night I would sleep at Crissy Sharp's. Her husband works at night and I was thinking how fun it would be to have a girly sleepover (with eight children, but I'll get to that in a minute). So, I gathered my troops and we went out, with Mexican Train and overnight bags in tow. We arrived with the general attitude of "are we having fun yet?" and set in to enjoy the evening. And we were not disappointed. Silas, of course, fell asleep around 8:30 (in front of a door somewhere) and Felix went down around 9:30. Around 11:30, people who were going home left, and I readied myself for bed. We arranged the children in various palettes and went to bed. Crissy and I chit-chatted until about 12:30 AM and then fell asleep.

Around 4:30, I woke up to the sound of scuffling feet. Silas was looking for a tissue. He narrowly avoided Felix's head and found his way to the bathroom to get what he was searching for. Then he went back to bed. At 4:40, I heard the scuffling again and it was Silas, looking for a tissue. I got up, helped him with his nose, gave him a wad of toilet paper and instructed him to stay in the bed. I dozed off for a little bit, then at 5:15, I heard doors closing, over and over again in the hall. I ignored it for a minute, hoping he would make his way back to the bed. Then Crissy got up to tell him to stop. Oops. At 5:30, I heard him again, got out of the ($#%$) bed, and told him (with a finger pointed at him) to NOT get up again; that it was STILL dark, NOBODY was awake, and to go back to sleep. With head lowered, he made his way back to the bed and I flounced back to my own crib. Crissy then asked me "Do you want me to turn on a movie?" This should have been followed with "What a brilliant idea! Thank you.", but I really wanted him to go back to sleep since he had been awake since at least 4:30. Poor thing, he had a runny nose and he was SUPER excited to be at somebody else's house; why waste time sleeping? At 6:15, I heard him again. Grrrr... I got up, grabbed his pillow and blanket and threw them on the couch, instructing him that he was done getting in and out of the bed. Now, he is a sensitive child, and can tell when I'm angry, so I knew the water works were about to start. Crissy then got up, turned on a Ratatouille, and went back to bed. Then he was fine. I was not fine. I knew I was done sleeping, after all it was 6:15 and it was only a matter of minutes before Felix woke up. Not to mention that I was annoyed that my children had the incapability of sleeping until 7, even though they rarely do that at home. I made coffee and pouted on the chair. Then Felix woke up. Now it is nearly 8:00 AM and I've spent the last hour and a half coaxing the children to hush. I've had approximately 4 hours of sleep and I'm grouchy.

I'm sitting here now with a rye smile on my face. I've just fixed my third cup of coffee and thinking about how my expectations fell short. I love my dear friend Crissy. I have the feeling that she's lying in bed now, ruing her affirmative answer to my inquiring of "spending the night" at her house, with my early-rising children. She must really love me. Or maybe her expectations were high, too. Maybe I'll just go stare at her until she wakes up to ask her.