Something in the water...

I don't know what it was, but it was something that caused little boys to not be tired in the slightest.
Even by 9:30pm, these boys were bouncing around tonight like little crack addicts looking for their next score.
Even Joey - my good sweet precious, easy going, never gives me trouble at night Joey - gave me trouble.

For starters, we spent the day at Grandma and Poppas (my parents) celebrating the birthdays of both myself (on the 11th) and my sister in law (on the 27th). The kids love birthday celebrations, because it means they can blow out candles and have cake.
This also means a sugar high from which they never did really come down.
Joey skipped his nap, and instead of being cranky and irritable, he was charming and sweet and lovely all day long - UNTIL, It was time to put him into bed.
All 3 of them fell asleep in the van on the way home, and when we pulled into the driveway at 6:30, I honestly thought that after such an exhausting day, maybe they all WOULD go to bed an hour earlier than normal.
Things looked promising for an evening that Chris and I could have mostly to ourselves. That is of course until 8pm when Matthew awoke wanting (read screaming for) chocolate milk. This in turn woke up the baby in the room next door, and set off a rather catastrophic chain of events that eventually resulted in 3 very tired boys that would not sleep. It's like the little nap they had recharged their batteries to Energizer bunny levels, and they ran from room to room, doing everything in their power to ensure that neither mommy NOR daddy were able to sit and relax for any more than 1 minute and 17 seconds before we were being hailed to break up a fight, pick up a baby, stop the boys from shredding stuff without permission, put on a video, protect the rest of the DVD's from Matthew's investigative (and grubby) hands, get bottles, sippy cups and glasses of various liquids, stop the baby from playing in the toilet (his new found passion). Can I mention here that Joey managed to throw several toys into grandmas toilet today, resulting in the permanent loss of at least one magnetic letter, and yesterday, Matthew managed to flush a disposable razor down our toilet. I know it's disposable, but I don't think they meant for them to be flushed down the loo. In any case, it doesn't seem to be stuck, but time will tell. On with the events of the evening....

Finally, in a desperate effort to salvage a small portion of the evening for ourselves, we set the big boys up with a video and put the Joe man into bed with a bottle.
Just yesterday I was lamenting to Chris how big Joey had gotten, and how he was no longer the wee little baby who would fall asleep on my chest - In fact it has been months since he's fallen asleep in my arms. I miss that little bit of babyhood. Once it's gone, it's gone. Over. Kids too grown up to sleep on mummy's lap. Joey was up and fussing an hour later, so we gave him another bottle, and again he lay down for a short period of time. But didn't fall asleep.
By 10pm, he was fussing RATHER loudly, and no longer wanted a bottle, but wanted up to play.

By this point, we know our evening was basically a write-off. Not even a movie to watch, as the boys had commandeered the DVD player to play "The Talking Words Factory".
Secretly, Chris and I are thrilled that they love this video so much, as it teaches the basics of reading and Duncan has already informed me that "cat is spelled k-k-k-k-k-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-t-t-t-t-t - Kay, Ay, Tee spells CAT". So he IS learning some useful stuff. I would just rather they learn it during the day, and not 10 oclock at night.

10:15, and Joey is screaming louder than I've heard him in a loooooong time. I went up to his room, settled him down and decided to let him cry it out, while putting the other boys to bed. This tactic resulted in us having 3 crying boys that didn't want to sleep, yet the tag team of mom & dad was not to be outdone.
Divide and conquer!! I read Matthew a story , while Chris looked after Duncan.

Joey continued to scream.

After basically getting the boys more or less settled (read LOCKED into) their rooms and into bed, I realized that it was nearly 10:30 and the crying it out thing just wasn't working. If anything, it was making him angrier and less likely to sleep.

I caved. I picked Joey up, and brought him downstairs. I laid down on the couch with Joey on my chest, and he immediately settled without a peep, put his head down, and fell asleep in 30 seconds flat.

So I got my sleeping-baby-on-my-chest fix - one last time. :)

Matthew banged his head on the door for an hour before falling asleep, and Joey was carefully placed back into his crib - without being woken up - After I had my cuddle with a sleeping baby time.


They better ALL sleep in tomorrow!