For the Love of Sleep

I love my family. I really do. Sometimes that love is so palpable that it hurts.

Yesterday was one of those days. It started out very badly. Cycle Day 2 and the cramps were HORRIBLE. I woke up at 4:15 AM from the pain and I was unable to go back to sleep even after resorting to my prescription pain medicine. So that left me super sleepy and groggy from the meds as well as still being in pretty severe pain. Luckily the small humans stayed asleep until 7:15 when the smallest boy human woke up. We were able to ease into the morning because it was my day to work from home while my Big Human did his work stuff. I woke up the other small humans so I could serve breakfast by 9 AM (I try my best to keep them on a regular eating time schedule) while I continued to work on my computer. Even in my sleep-deprived, leftover pain meds fog and still in pain, I was enjoying being with my small humans. They were so delightful.

After breakfast, they got ready quickly, sat and watched two DVR'ed Arthurs from PBS and then without a fuss, turned the TV off and set about finding something to play with. I spotted a bag of leftover balloons, handed them to the biggest small girl human and off she went to find her brother and sister. They quickly created alien babies out of the blown-up balloons and spent the rest of the morning naming the babies, feeding the babies and protecting them from the thunderstorm outside. It was so awesome to watch them play so nicely together and let their imaginations come up with funny things. The morning flew by and soon it was time for lunch. The three smaller humans requested to eat lunch in the safe spot they had created for their babies in the master bathroom so after coaxing me a bit, I agreed and laid out the picnic blanket for them. They ate their lunch there without any arguments and the biggest small boy human and I enjoyed our lunch at the table.

After lunch, we went downtown for a few hours to the children's museum where the three smaller humans continued to play together, they read stories to each other and created another story line that seemed to involve them being polar bears? Not sure about that one but they were having a blast. We came back home and they quickly resumed playing with their alien babies. I made dinner, washed some clothes and then my Big Human came home. We spent the evening hanging out and the small humans convinced some of our neighbors to let them wash their cars the next day for cash.

After baths and the regular bedtime routine, I popped up to the neighborhood grocery store for a few essentials that we needed for breakfast the next morning including a gallon of milk and a carton of OJ. By this point, I was so sleep deprived and just generally out of it because I had had no rest and had been taking my pain medicine throughout the day so that I would be able to function. I came home from the store in the middle of a downpour. I ran in the house, put the bags down in the kitchen and proceeded to get the small girl humans tucked into bed. I quickly followed because I could barely keep my eyes open. When I woke up this morning, I went into the kitchen and guess what was sitting on the counter? The gallon of milk and carton of OJ from the night before. I had left it out all night. Grrrr....But despite all that, it was still a good day.