The Double Team

Nights like last night make having another baby seem utterly foolish, in a take-your-tongue-and-stretch-it-over-your head kind of way.

Jamie has that zombie rattle cough that seems to be going around lately. I think he caught it from a preemie friend of ours, who definitely isn't big enough to handle being a zombie. He's in the hospital with it. Every time I hear my healthy six year old struggle with the congestion in his lungs, I worry and pray for the tiny non-zombie doing the same thing over at Children's hospital. I'm so glad we didn't give it to him...that would make me feel even more like a zombie mom than I already do.

Charlie isn't a fan of zombie brothers and their incessant hacking. Last night was a race to see who could get to mom and dad's bed first. Jamie slept on our floor so he wouldn't bother Charlie in their bedroom, but then Charlie wanted in on the fun too (it was 1am when he decided to pull the "this isn't fair" routine, does he have sibling radar?), so then we tried to put him back in his own bed. That went over about as well as you would expect a second-born to react to being left out. Charlie screamed bloody murder for over an hour, and was inconsolable. Then he was complaining of his legs hurting. Growing pains? So we massaged his legs and sang to him. He finally gave up and went to sleep around 3:15am... approx 45 minutes before Jim had to get up for work. What in the world would you do with a newborn in the midst of that sort of midnight circus?

I love snuggling with my boys in the morning. They like to slip into bed with me after their daddy leaves to work. Sometimes they tell me stories, or whisper secrets. Sometimes we sing songs or pray. Sometimes they drag me out of bed for food...and sometimes they bring the food to me and I prop open an eyeball to find cheerios raining down on my sheets.

But lately it's become a competition. Their morning ritual has started happening at 5 am, then 4 am, then 3 am, now 2 am... We've got two stubborn children fighting over blankets, mattress real-estate and pillow privileges. Not cool. I don't know if it's because Jamie was sick, or if this is the new "normal", but it's stopping tonight. I wish they could just enjoy the morning tradition without ruining the whole thing. That or we need a bigger bed.

Charlie got all his curls chopped off. *sniff sniff* I'm trying to be ok with it, but I miss the old mop.