Evening Antics

What a crazy evening we had yesterday! I'm sneaking in a few minutes to blog while the kids are still napping. Yes, Brandon fell asleep, too. I'll pay for this later, but right now I'm just trying to enjoy the moment.

We've actually had a crazy week, but that's another post. Caitlin and Brandon were having an awful time going to sleep last night. Brandon has been very good about not coming out of his bedroom, but I could still hear him. Caitlin, on the other hand, must be doing cheerleader moves in her room, since it sounds like a whole troop of girls is up there! Around 10 pm I heard a huge thud. Enough to make me hustle my rear off the couch and up the stairs! What could that noise be? Caitlin (of course it was Caitlin) had managed to topple her 4 and half foot dresser! Luckily she was not hurt. However, she was sufficiently scared. I vacillated between being the concerned and caring mom, holding her and rocking her and making sure she wasn't hurt, and the stern, pissed-off mom who'd already had enough 3 year-old antics earlier in the day to fill a book! Caitlin cried and cried, and refused at first to tell me how she pulled the dresser over. She's done this before by pulling out the drawers and scaling Mount Dresser, but only on her shorter, more stable dresser. This time she wanted to see what was in the top drawer of her taller dresser. I'd taken the furniture wall mounts off the dressers a few months ago when we had to rearrange the room for her new bed, as I thought she was done climbing dressers like a rock climber. I was wrong. Guess that earthquake kit needs to come out again! I thought I was done securing furniture to walls here in Colorado.

After Caitlin finally calmed down and got back into bed, I headed back downstairs to finish whatever I'd been working on. A few minutes later Brandon came down, saying he still couldn't sleep. Caitlin's crashing dresser had roused him from his semi-sleep state, and he couldn't get tired again. We've all been there. When I sent him back to his room, he burst into tears, saying that he could see the ghosts hiding in the corners waiting to get him as soon as he closed his eyes. Ghosts! Who is putting this into my boy's head? I asked him where he'd heard it, and he told me that our new neighbor boy (who is all of one week older than Brandon) told him about ghosts (he's also introduced Brandon to Jaws, all types of sharks, and SpongeBob, which doesn't thrill me). He's a nice kid, and I love, love, love the fact that a family with a child has moved on to our formerly childless street, but the stuff he is into is very different than what Brandon's been into. This boy has been influencing Brandon more than other friends he's made in school. It's a little crazy, and I don't like it. I realize I can't hand-pick my child's friends, but I'd like to. His dad (who is the stay-at-home parent in this case) doesn't keep a close eye on him, and he's frequently roaming the street. It's a safe street, but the kid's only 5! Back to Brandon - I had to go and lay down with him in order for him to go to sleep. It only took 5 minutes, but that's not our normal routine. Nor do I want to become our routine.

It was hard for me to drift off after all the evening activity. That, coupled with rising early for VBS this week has made all of us tired.With Brian gone for the week, the craziness of doing it all myself wears me out anyway! Only a week and two days left before we leave on our summer vacation. I'm looking forward to hanging with our friends and seeing family. I think I might be able to take a breather from this crazy home life.