Excuses, excuses

People often comment to me about the lateness of my e-mails. I don't mean I am tardy in responding to e-mails, I mean they notice that my correspondence is written at very late hours. I will tell you why. It's 10:25 as I start this blog. My 5-year-old has been asleep for about 7 minutes. She was tossing and turning and kicking and crying and doing everything she could have possibly done to avoid sleeping. I am sure you parents have heard every excuse in the book. I need to go to the bathroom. I need a drink of water. I'm hungry. I'm cold. I'm hot. My nightgown is itchy. I need my bottle. It's too dark. I need my pacifier. I need my blankie. I need my bear. No, not that bear, the other bear. One of my favorite excuses of all time used to be "I'm too tired to go to sleep." I love that one. But tonight probably topped that one. Tonight, the little one said she couldn't go to sleep because she needed a dream catcher. It was very hard to convince her that I didn't have a dream catcher and didn't think I could get one at that late hour. She was okay after about 15 minutes of worrying about the dream catcher. Then, she decided she couldn't go to sleep because she doesn't like the color of paint on the walls. If they were white, she said, she would be able to sleep. I told her I would try to get them painted soon so that she wouldn't have any issues with going to bed anymore. So, now you know why I send out those late e-mails. And now you know why you'll never hear from me at 6 in the morning. I'm too darn tired to get out of bed!