Or, What Happens at The Annual Sleepover
Zoey and Zander said good-by to their Mom and Dad with no problem. (About 5:30 p.m.)They were excited about having fun at Nana and Poppa's house overnight while Tyler and Judy had an anniversary to themselves.
First off, Zander wanted to go outside. He immediately enlisted the help of Poppa by pulling Poppa's finger toward the door. Zoey and Nana played Jr. Yahtzee according to Zoey's rules. She even had me do a "magic touch" prior to each of her throws of the dice. "No Nana, you can't touch it by taking the shaker, just a little touch will work the magic." I must have done it right because she won.
In no time at all 6:30 rolled around and I couldn't figure out why Zander and Poppa were still outside. Zoey and I went to see where they were. It turns out they had spent the hour walking up and down our two streets with Zander pulling his wagon ( garage sale for one buck. The best toys are the cheap ones I always say.) I knew this would undoubtedly have worn the little guy out BIG time. We had about 45 minutes left until bedtime for him. So, into the tub - very willingly - they both went. Snacks were made and last drinks given out. So, now it's 7:30 p.m. Are you tired Zander? "No." We read a few books. We play every game we have.
It's 8:30 p.m. Zander is still shaking his head that he isn't tired. We set up the crib. Make it all nice for him in the office and set up Zoey's air mattress bed in the spare bedroom. The kids jump up and down on the mattress and have a great time. This has got to be wearing them out... right? Wrong... ! So, we go through the routine get him down into the pack and play and he looks at us, his lower lip trembles and he wails out the loneliest heart-wrenching cry and starts sobbing. My heart is breaking. No amount of consoling was helping. So, we get him up and hope he's going to pass out soon.
Then Zoey and Zander decide they are hungry. Zander takes my finger and brings me to the refrigerator and I open it. He snatches a yogurt and Zoey wants one too. They gobble down a yogurt each. New diaper to Zander and we pretend sleep on Zoey's mattress. It's almost 9:30 p.m. Past my bedtime. We read four books - a Zoey special. The "Tins" are over. We're all in our jamies now. I get a brilliant idea. We ask Zander if he wants his bed in the same room as Poppa and he says "Yes!" We transfer the pack and play into the bedroom. He lies on Pappa's bed looking like he is due to be executed in 5 minutes as we set it up. I've never seen him so frightened. Is this one of those rites of passage? Going to bed with no Mummy or Daddy around?? We cross our fingers, turn off the lights and all lay down, but Zander is soon crying non-stop. Then Zoey freaks out with the lights off so we turn a couple of lights back on. Doesn't help. It's time for tough love and we let him cry it out -- after about 10 minutes he gives up and lays down to sleep.
Meanwhile, if you remember the flopping fish story from last year... Zoey spent the next 20 minutes flip flopping around the mattress. However, she stayed quiet with no long list of questions over and over. At long last she's asleep in a normal position with head on pillow and her special blanket, the house is quiet and I also fall asleep. (After carefully tiptoeing around turning off the lights at 10:30. Whew!)
6:30 a.m. comes around and after a night of waking up with every flip flop, every murmur every 30-40 second cry I decide it's time to get up. Zoey has just had a night mare and wakes up and Zander has been awake for about 15 minutes.
What for breakfast? Zoey doesn't want eggs but agrees to cereal with cut bananas because she is going to be "open minded." Neither ate it. The open minded one took one taste and no more. So cinnamon raisin toast worked with some blueberries on the side. Zander doesn't eat and subsists on drinks I think. He loves his pullups because there are cars on them and only agrees to diapers at bedtime. He can't wait to get dressed and get outside. But first he kept pulling my finger to the bedroom and motioned for me to lie down on the spare bed and he wanted to pretend lie down on Zoey's mattress to prove he can do this next time he sleeps over. He repeated these instructions in mime twice. So we're going to get another air mattress for the big boy. Then he pulled me to get him dressed and outside. His non-verbal is quite good and can get what he wants very insistently by pulling your finger to where ever he wants to go. He's ready with his "Tins" hat and was willing to wear a big shirt over his clothes because it was quite cold outside Saturday morning. No way would Zoey wear an oversized shirt to keep warm so she stayed inside. Girls?!
The Z crew survived the night and Nana and Poppa took a nap to recoup after Tyler picked up the cute ones. Raising kids is full time exhausting work. It's good to remember that once in a while.
Nana
