a night to remem...forget!

Last night, with all the bad weather moving in, Daniel and I were unsure what to do. The sirens began to blare for the tornado warning just as we make up our minds. To be on the safe side, we moved everyone downstairs to the basement...everyone...us, Charlie, the dog and the cat. Luckily, we have a bed there and more importantly, we have two rooms. Otherwise, Khaki would mess with the cat for a while and we would never get Charlie to sleep. Khaki goes in one room and the cat in the other. So here we go. Daniel goes with the dog downstairs. I follow with her food and water. Next trip up and down is for the cat. I grab her and her food/water while Daniel grabs the litter box. Next trip up and down is for Charlie and things like our pillows, etc. Charlie has been asleep at this point for about 2 hours so he doesn't even wake up until we are going down the stairs. We decided just to put him in the bed with us instead of having to go through the hassle of setting up the pack n play. Charlie would have just screamed for a while until we couldn't take it any longer and then we would have put him in the bed with us anyway. I lay Charlie down in the bed and he drifts off to sleep until Daniel is bumping around trying to get everything else done so we can go to sleep for the night. "I love snuggling up with my little man". The 6" I have on the bed aren't so bad at this point. I manage to get comfortable but have trouble falling asleep. Charlie has to rub my hair if he is laying down so I just turn my back to him so he has access to a head full. Aw, how sweet. My little boy loves his mommeeee...ow! "Charlie, don't pull Mommy's hair." After some tossing and turning from all of us, Charlie stops squirming and falls back asleep. I'm assuming Daniel is in dreamland by now since he hasn't moved a muscle in a while. Figures. I think when his head hits the pillow, he is out.

Why did I have to take that sinus medicine? It's keeping me up. My little boy is so sweet when he slee...whap! Nothing like a little backhand from a toddler...to the face! So much for going to sleep. I toss and turn a while. I doze for a little bit. I look at the clock. Surely, it's almost time to get up and I can just nap today...12:57. What!?! I've only been laying here for an hour? It seems like it should be about 5 am! Then, the cat starts meowing really loud, which, of course, wakes Charlie up. This is at about 1:30 or 2. Daniel gets up and sends her upstairs. He moves her food to the room where Khaki is and brings the dog into the room with us. Everyone lays back down but the dog is pacing. I get her to come to me hoping that if I pet her a while, she will lay down or will atleast stay still long enough for Charlie to go back to sleep. It works for a while until she starts trying to lick me. She never got still so about 2:30 am, Daniel takes Khaki upstairs and puts her in her kennel. He said he tried to check the weather to make sure it was ok to leave her up there but the news channels were infomercials and the weather channel was some place else. Ok. Animals gone. Now maybe we can get some sleep. We all fall asleep but I continue to get "whapped" or Charlie rolls onto his back and due to limited bed space, can't get himself rolled back over and cries. So I roll him back over and try to get comfortable again on my 6" of bed. Sometime during the night, it crossed my mind just to get up and go sleep on the couch with the dog. But then I realized that Charlie would roll off the bed if I wasn't there. So now among my many roles as a mother, I'm now also a bed rail.

After what seemed like about 15 min. of sleep, Daniel's alarm goes off. Oh, please, wake up and hit snooze before Charlie wakes up! Whew. Safe. We go through this a few more times. Safe. Daniel heads upstairs to get ready for work. But, after the anxiety of the alarm clock, I have trouble getting back to sleep. I thought that once Daniel left for work, we'd be home free and I could get another hour of sleep. Wrong. Right before Daniel is on his way out the door, Charlie wakes up and starts signing "eat". Ugh. "Just give me a minute, Charlie." Daniel comes to say good-bye and informs me that the cat has pooped in the closet where her litter box usually is. Great. And at this point, Charlie is ready to get up and get moving. He apparently had lots to do! I postpone as long as I can. And, so...the day begins...