Friday, March 9, 2012

Wait ~ how many kids do I have?

I was lying in bed last night going through the list in my head like most mothers I know do. Is everything done? The house locked up, everything turned off? Kids homework done? Did they do their reading? Baths? Did I make tomorrow's lunches? (Whatever - I'll do that in the morning.) Did I say a prayer over each child and give one more kiss before I got in bed?  That's when I remembered what Myli (my 5 year old baby) whispered half asleep when I kissed her again around midnight. "Did you put my babies to bed, Mama?"

She had wanted to do this before I put her to bed but I told her it was too late - it is actually a very long process she has. So she asked me to do it for her and I agreed as I was tucking her in. "Mama, their pajamas are laid out next to their beds. They each have a special teddy bear and a blanky and I sing them a song and scratch their backs." I'm thinking, "sure, sure, okay, time to go to sleep, little girl. (sheesh)"

So I'm lying in bed in my totally dark bedroom in my totally dark house, half asleep already when I remember this forgotten task. I imagine her getting up in the morning to wake up her babies only to discover they never went to bed. She'll never trust me again! I weigh the pros and cons. Sooo do not want to get up out of my cozy bed.

Five minutes later I'm chuckling as I'm crouched down on the floor of Myli's room in my underwear and  wrestling one of many baby dolls into her too small jammies. I laugh even harder as I tuck each one into a little bed Myli set up and place a tiny teddy bear (where did these even come from??) under each of their arms. Now, just between us, I skipped the bed time song and back scratching, but I still went to sleep feeling satisfied with the completion of my to do list.

This morning I woke up to Myli running into our room and throwing her arms around my neck. "Thanks for putting my babies to bed, Mommy!"

I guess I made the right choice. What a beautiful way to wake up.