Or, Things I Ponder in the Darkness as I Wait For My Children to Sleep
“Wait” seems to imply gentle and wholesome solitude, but I assure you it is anything but. It takes two adults to put our two youngest to sleep. We sing. We rub tummies. We massage backs. We hum. We pray. We adjust covers. We roll eyes. We count time. We do Itsy Bitsy Spider. We pull out our hair. We bribe. We threaten. We paddle small behinds. We hold small hands. Yes, I suppose you might say we wait…
*****
1.
The watched eyelid never droops.
*****
2.
Roses are red
Violets are blue
If you go to sleep
I can too.
*****
3.
so much depends
upon
the baby lids
drooping
the dark lashes
folding
against the quiet
cheeks.
*****
with special apologies to William Carlos Williams
LOL – My kids are 20, 22, and 24 now but I do remember those days! It’s like a big game of whack-a-mole. You know that carnival game where the little heads keep popping out of the hole and you have to get them back in before the next one gets up? If I had the perfect answer I’d be the queen of all mothers, but all I can say is stay strong and honey, this too, shall pass. So glad I found your blog ~ you make my day. ♥
More on toddler sleep: I’ve recently learned about the developmental stage of “nightmares”. Apparently around the age of 2, many children’s imaginations are developing faster than their sense of reason – resulting in nightmares that feel real for a long time even while we try to comfort them. Results for mom and dad? Not much sleep after 4:00 AM. Somehow it comforts me to know that it’s an “intellectual developmental phenomenon”. 🙂
That last poem is amazing!
I SO much agree with Beth’s comment about the game of whack-a-mole. I JUST thought this very same scenario only days ago!!
I’m telling you, a weighted blanket is my very best friend ever. I am fixin’ to buy one for the younger son around here bc he has a new fascination with extra blankets…
did “the boss” ever teach you the song…”close your eyes, little child”? or “We’ll wake up in the morning”? Not sure how many hundreds of times I sang those songs to ONE particular little boy!! And no it wasn’t “the boss”…well maybe in a way you could say that particular one was THE BOSS! = ) hang in there, it does get better after a while!!
Hey, check out Andrew Peterson’s “Slugs, Bugs, and Lullabies” for some new songs to sing to those droopy eyelids. I LOVE the lullabies, especially “Beautiful Girl” (for Kelly), but the favs of the kids (especially Darien– the album was part of his 2nd BD gift) are “Tractor, Tractor” and “Beans”. I went on the website to “sample” the music, couldn’t get the sampler to work, so just bought it (then blamed it on his BD). It’s SO cute!!