a lot about baby slumber parties

1. Kai & his train set, 2. Aly & Asher, 3. Aly putting clothes away.

The latter two were taken by Kai.

I spent the last two nights and three days with Kai and Asher while their mama & papa redeemed the gift I gave them for last Christmas (a weekend away for free). Hats off to all of you single mothers out there; I don't know how you do it. The days were mostly alright, although at some point over the past few weeks, Kai has reached the terrible twos, which we thought he might skip. Wishful thinking.

For example:

"Kai, baby Asher is trying to sleep. We need to whisper. Can you show me how good you are at whispering?"

"Uh - no! I want to be loud!!!"

This leads to rounds of Asher crying, then Kai crying, and Asher crying again. So, nap time is hard. In addition, Kai has some difficulties with sleeping in his own bed at night (meaning, he can't, won't, will not do it) which means I was up a few times trying to coax him into his own bed. And, Asher needs feeding at ungodly hours of the night. Needless to say, periods of rest and sleep were nil.

There were some very sweet moments too, though. Kai found my new Christmas camera (as he calls it) in my purse and because it made him happy and kept him preoccupied, I allowed him to play with it whilst constantly stressing how we need to be very, very careful with it because of how special and important it is. After taking quite a few photos - mostly of me - he dropped the camera on the floor. I swiftly picked it up and announced that we were done playing with Aly's camera. He began to make a fuss and what I thought was protest, so I got down on his level to "Now Kai" him, when he burst into tears and sobbed, "I'm sorry Ah-yee! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" I then cried, too. He felt so bad - and it was so precious and I was so sleep deprived! Also, I've been singing him to sleep with various Carpenters and Beatles songs. During yesterday's nap time, at the first sounds of, "Oh yeah, I'll tell you something, I think you'll understand..." - Kai interrupted me and said, "Wait - Ah-yee. I wanna hold your hand." He then grasped my hand and smiled. Sigh.

So, although it was incredibly tiring, and my patience was tried to its thinnest point - I was happy to be with them - and, oddly enough, I have found myself going through withdrawals. All afternoon I've felt like I'm missing something (i.e., a toddler and an infant).

Anyway. I am happy to be sleeping alone and in my own bed tonight!