The last couple of days, there has been so much excitement that the kids sleep schedules have been all kinds of jacked up. Yesterday, we drove out to good ole West-by-God-Virginia and visited some friends. I figured this trip would wear them out and they would go to bed a normal time and get some much needed rest, for them and for me. You'd figure I'd have learned by now that things don't work like that. My friend's kids were getting into bed because they both of school today (we still have no power at all) so I figured that my kids would get the point that it's bed time. I laid them down, first together in the big bed. After about 5 minutes of being quiet, they start to get progressively louder and louder. Alright, that's not going to work. I walk in to separate them to find that Livi was holding a pillow over Cole's face. Nice. Livi was put on the mat on the floor.
10 more minutes go by. Livi was still screaming about being put on the floor, and Cole was getting annoyed cause she was being so loud. They are tired to a point beyond reason. After threatening them with being grounded until the second coming of Jesus, they decided to quiet down. Good choice I'd say. Then I made a really silly mistake. I actually thought that I'd be able to have an adult conversation! How ridiculous of me! After about 30 minutes of going back and forth, I realized that I was going to have to actually calm them down in order for them to be able to relax enough to go to sleep. They were simple too far gone into it to just go to sleep like that.
So I lay down with them and start to rub Cole's back. I figured that we could do some visualization and that might take his mind off of being all riled up and work his imagination a little so he could unwind. I asked what he wanted to think about and the response I got was typical of Cole. Battling. Fighting. The conversation went like this:
Me: Uh no. Let's think about a big field, with tall grass that you can run in.
Cole: That I can fight in.
Me: The wind is blowing, and the sun is warm on your face while you play.
Cole: While I battle the bad guys
Okay, so the field scene didn't work. On to the next one.
Me: Okay, so let's think about......the ocean! Yes, the ocean.
Cole: With sharks.
Me: NO, no sharks. Sharks are stressful, no sharks.
Cole: Yes sharks. They live in the ocean.
Forget it. What I really needed was that great bedtime story, "Go the Fuck to Sleep". Follow the link below to hear Samual L. Jackson read it. It's just amazing.
Go the Fuck to Sleep
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