I Gave Birth to Three Rocks

My children love to sleep...and they do it very well. Barking dogs, a noisy car driving by, a major thunderstorm, not even a HURRICANE, can deter them from the peaceful bliss of sleep. They have always been this way. All three of them were good nappers well past age 4. They've always gone to bed at a decent hour without complaint (well, maybe a couple complaints here and there, but sorry...after 8:30 at night is mom and dad time, thank you very much.)

They tend to be early risers, often waking up on weekends the moment the clock strikes 7 a.m. (we don't let them get out of bed until at least 7:00 or it would probably be earlier) because they know on the weekends they can wake up and watch a t.v. show or play a game on the computer and since that's FUN, they wake with no problem. On the weekdays, however, when school is in session? I have to wake them every day because, well, that's just not as fun a reason to wake up! Amazing how their bodies instinctively KNOW this stuff.

It just amazes me, though, that three people can sleep through SO much. Starting around 1:00 this morning, a wicked thunderstorm moved into our area and seemed to position itself over our house for the long haul. The thunder was loud and literally non-stop for a long time. I went in to check on Theo and he was snoozing away, completely oblivious to the craziness outside his window. (The girls were at their dad and step-mom's house, but I assure you they were snoozing soundly as well...I've witnessed it many times.) Of course, Smudge, our 60-pound 4-year-old lab mix, was wide-awake and promptly came over to lie down on the floor as close to my side of the bed as she could for protection from that nasty storm outside. Six hours later, the rain is still coming down and the thunder is still rumbling and the dogs started barking like crazy at 6:30 when the girls' step-mom dropped off Annie's clarinet...and Theo is still sleeping.

And that thing about the hurricane? I wasn't kidding about that. We rented a house on the ocean in North Carolina two summers ago and on one of our last days there, Hurricane Ernesto decided to pay us a visit in the middle of the night. I've never experienced anything like it before in my life. Winds whipped around this unfamiliar home at well over 100 miles per hour for several hours. The hammock on one of the upper decks came loose on one side and banged into the sliding glass door repeatedly until we were able to make it stop. The rain poured down in buckets like nothing I had ever seen before. The house creaked. It was quite terrifying at times, these noises in the pitch black of night in a house that wasn't ours, not knowing what to expect next. The kids? They were sleeping through all of it until we decided to WAKE THEM and bring them downstairs to a safe spot away from any windows where we could see and hear them. Yes, my children would have slept through a hurricane.

I don't remember being able to sleep that soundly when I was a child but perhaps my memory fails me. I remember having a lot of nightmares when I was a kid, and going through a stage where I imagined all kinds of creepy things in my room, like spiders and a mean man with a hook for a hand that I was sure was hiding above the canopy on my bed. (What can I say? I had a vivid imagination as a child.) The kids have a nightmare here and there and Caroline did go through a stretch where she had them more often, but 99% of the time they sleep like rocks, oblivious to the world around them. I take comfort in knowing that perhaps it means my children are at such peace that nothing can disturb their sleep.

I'm now off to help Theo finish packing for his trip to northern Wisconsin this weekend. He is going with Annie, Caroline, their dad and step-mom, Tracey, and some of Tracey's family members. He went with them last year as well and had a blast and yes, it means Steve and I get a weekend completely to ourselves. I've been looking forward to it since oh, March. Sleeping in, watching a movie whenever we want, going out without needing a babysitter, uninterrupted conversations...I will be so glad to see the kids on Monday, but a weekend alone with my wonderful husband is truly a little piece of heaven on Earth. May you all have a wonderful weekend as well!