Adventures Day and Night

Last night DOB's cell phone received two wrong number calls in a row at 10 p.m. as we were about to go to bed. About 11:30, just as I was getting really soundly asleep, we got another--apparently the mistaken number calling back. DOB then turned the ringer off, which was good because another one came through a bit later. All this action awoke D2, who after some time convinced me that he was not going to go back to sleep without a full tummy.

You would think after that he would have had the good graces to sleep through until the alarm went off, but no, he awoke again at 4:30 and communicated the same information. (I keep thinking he's about to start sleeping through the night, but every time I'm sure it's about to occur he hits another growth spurt or cuts some more teeth.) I don't sleep well when I know an alarm is going to go off in the next hour, so that was the end of that.

So today I have been in a sleep-deprived state of grogginess and crabbiness, although I try to maintain calm for D1's benefit at least. When she is crabby for no reason, she has to go to her room until she can be happy, a process that usually takes 37 seconds. Yesterday I took away something she had gotten into, and as I put it away she stood next to me making curious "eh-hehh, eh-hehh" noises. Finally she decided to make it more explicit.

"D1 go to room?" she asked.

"Oh," I said, finally realizing that the noises were meant to be faked sobs. "Do you need to go to your room?"

"D1 happy now!" she said.

D2 also does his part to keep me from feeling dull. Many times people will counsel a mother with two close together that there need be no rush potty-training before the baby is born. "It's not that hard to have two in diapers," they say.

That is quite true. What they don't mention is how well-nigh impossible it is to have one potty-training while the other one is out where he can interfere. D2 is now indicating that he would like to go in the potty, too. Head-first. Fortunately his crow of triumph echoes a bit strangely in the bathroom, so I can tell where he is and rush to intercept.

I haven't come up with a good strategy for keeping him out of the bathroom while keeping it accessible to D1. I didn't have this problem with her; she just wasn't that interested in the bathroom, probably because at that time it wasn't a center of family activity.

Midway through the day I realized my fatigue was not being improved by a most uncharitable attitude toward the wrong-number caller of the previous night. "I should pray for him instead," I thought.

"Lord," I prayed, "please bless the guy who called us last night." And then a happy thought occurred to me.

"To be specific, please bless him with many small children. Maybe triplets. Amen."