Night Owl

I generally go to bed well after midnight. My older children are finally in bed, I have a sleeping baby in my lap, and this is usually my prime time to relax and enjoy a little me-time, often mindlessly whiling away time on Facebook, sometimes reading, rarely knitting, or catching up on Dexter or Grey’s Anatomy and/or binging on cookies or some other delectable delight. All of this instead of catching up on neglected housework, obviously, because when I’ve been chasing and tending to children all day, sitting on my arse and just breathing is pretty damn appealing. The baby usually wakes at least once more and plays in the glorious Land of No Big Kids for a while before fully zonking out for the night, but otherwise, we’re pretty safely in Grown-Upville at this time.

So what the hell is wrong with me that, on the first night of a shiny new year, I’m ready to crash before 10 p.m.?? Perhaps it’s the fact that baby girl spent a huge chunk of last night screaming in pain from teething. Or maybe that the toddler in the house gave us this lovely surprise this morning:

That’s flour and confectioner’s sugar, if it matters. Or that we had a battle royale over two asked-for-but-uneaten bowls of freaking DELICIOUS pomegranate oatmeal today (and it was organic!). None of these events is especially unusual around here, but I guess the combination did me in. I nixed my plan to cook a more traditional New Year’s Day meal; superstitions be damned, I’ll have a great/prosperous/lucky year even if I did eat leftovers. Maybe it was the ground turkey in those burritos, but I almost fell asleep while tucking in the four-year-old! That just doesn’t happen to me.

So here I sit, blogging as I internally debate the merits of quiet time vs. necessary sleepytime. And I realize that this blogging thing may very well be what brings me the greatest sense of calm this year. I’ve always loved writing, but haven’t made much time for it since having babies. Perhaps unloading my daily stresses with a little writing time will give me the accidental benefit of Calm (with a capital C). I’ll have to report back on the merits of that idea as a long-term hypothesis after I’ve had some time to test it. For now, I’m going to count this entry as my calm (with a little c) moment for Day One, and then maybe I’ll sleep. Maybe.