Our Kids are Driving us Crazy

So, Eva and Eli woke up at 5, after several night wake-ups. (Emily didn't take well to them waking up so early, but we'll just leave it at that.) I took them around 5:30, got them to nap briefly, handed them off at 8:30, slept to 10:20 myself, went to church. Then I took a huge nap with Sam (I slept like two hours, but Sam slept four hours--so not at all tired.) Then Emily took a nap while I was with Sam. Now we three bigger ones are up and the twins are down. Pure craziness. A while ago I saw a review of a popular children't book out now called "Go the F__ to Sleep." The hip reviews I have all seen scold the passive aggressiveness of the book, the anti-child tendencies, etc., etc., but what they forget is that not sleeping will make you crazy. It will make you crazy. There's a reason bad people use it against prisoners, why it's included in military training, etc., etc. It will make you crazy. This is one of the great mysteries of parenting, that you can love someone so much and want nothing so much as to be able to help them, but they have their own wants and needs.

OK, that's out of my system now.

The day was otherwise okay. Skipping the sleep drama, we were a picture of nuclear family bliss. We enjoyed church. We had a trip to the park. The evening has included viewings of Underdog and Chicken Little. A coworker and his wife and daughter stopped over in the afternoon. Sam's wearing his moped helmet and dancing around pantsless (last night he even slept without a diaper with no problems). A bath is in the future. From the happier perspective of evening (after naps and dinner), it was a fine day, solid parenting, etc.

Onto Eva. The little stinker is 6.6 again. What are you doing to us Eva?! The flip side is that she is very cute, alert, responsive, friendly. She was melting hearts at church today. She smiled her way through several sets of arms and made many new friends. Tuesday we go to the hospital to draw blood and find out what we can find out. Still not sure of an exact date on the genetic report, but the more I read the happier I am that we will soon (eventually?) get real certainty on this.

And now some recent pictures (blogger was acting up the last time I posted).