Sleep deprivation math

We went camping last weekend, and so of course my children were awake until about 11 pm.  This is long past their normal bedtime of 7 pm (where most of them are asleep by 8 pm).  You would think that after coming home and having one good night's rest, that somehow this would equal out and they would be back to normal.  I've found that it almost always takes 2 good nights of sleep, though, to make up for every 1 late night.  And it's not just my children.  I think I have this same problem.  I'm never as tired the morning after a late night as I am the following day, as if there's a one day lag.

I started calculating what this means for catching up for sleep in my lifetime, if I have to have 2 good nights' sleep to make up for every 1 bad night of sleep.  I pretty sure I went through 4 years of high school and 5 years of college without many good nights' sleep.  So, 9 years x 2 to make up for it, would mean I would need 18 years of good sleep.  Maybe the first 13 years of my life I slept pretty good, so that gets me pretty close.  Then we get to starting to raise a family.  We can rule out about 6 months of each pregnancy x 4 children, so there's another 2 years.  Oh, and then there's the first 3 months of having a new child when you're up in the middle of the night regularly, x 4, so there's another 1 year.  That's 3 years, so I'll need another 6 years to make up for that.  I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen until all my children are older and done with night terrors, bad dreams, etc.  Oh, but wait, then there's are those teenage years when I'm up worrying about my children or waiting for them to come home at night. 

I've decided I should probably stop calculating it all and just go to sleep.  Apparently I need all the good nights' sleep I can get.

My future dentist

I think my child wants to be a dentist aka Steve Martin style. She has pulled out 4 of her teeth in the past month, and I mean pulled out.  She hasn't just "lost" her teeth.  Her friend who is 3 days older than her was showing her one day how he was missing his 2 front bottom teeth.  By the next day, my 5 year old said her bottom tooth was loose, and she started wiggling it around.  Three days later, at 9pm, when she was supposed to be asleep, she came running downstairs to the kitchen saying "Mom, Dad, I've got great news! My tooth came out!" She was so excited to show us her tooth, and the blood on her face and hands didn't seem to concern her at all.  Less than a week later, she once again after bedtime came running downstairs to show another tooth out.

At this point, we started emphasizing to her that her teeth would come out when they were ready and there was no need to wiggle and wiggle them to make them loose.  About a week later, she apologetically came down at night with a bloody washcloth in hand to say her mouth was bleeding.  She was "cutting" a new tooth like a baby does, and it was bleeding.  I told her to just pat it with the washcloth and go to sleep.  About 5 minutes later, she came down and apologized that the 3rd bottom tooth had come out (with quite long roots, I would add).

I'm thinking of naming her Toothless the Night Fury.  There are 2 bottom teeth coming in now, so apparently those 2 really were ready to come out.  Today (a month after the first tooth), a 4th tooth has come out.  This one she has been playing with for several days, and today I just told her to pull it out.  She was quite excited to do so, and wanted to hold the tooth all evening and play with it.  We nixed that idea. 

As dramatic a child as she is, I assumed the blood would freak her out.  Or, that she would be squeamish like I always was as a child and not want to pull a tooth out, even when it was barely hanging on.  Not so.  Perhaps I should start training her for dental school right now.

 

Norrises on parade

My family outings have turned into parades.  Apparently with 4 kids, you instantly become the subject of comments like "Are they all yours?" "How old are all of them?" "Where do you think they got that red hair?"

I wish I could capture in photo what it looks like as we walk from our car to the grocery store, across the parking lot.  Unfortunately, my hands are too full to do so.  I'll try to describe it for you. The baby's not big enough to even sit up, so he still has to be carried in his car seat.  So, I have to lug the car seat into the store to get a cart.  The 2 year old is a little too wild to wander through the parking lot by herself, so her 5 year old sister and 3 year old brother have been assigned the job to hold her hands and keep her safe.  So, the parade begins through the parking lot with the 5 year old in front, leading the 2 year old by the hand, followed by the 3 year old holding her other hand, Sometimes they want to hold my hand as well, so that we have a parade of 5 going through the parking lot.  It almost looks more like a game of Red Rover. 

Who needs to go to crowded, hot parades during the summer when you can just watch the Norris family wander through parking lots.

Forgetfulness

I always thought being pregnant made you forgetful.  I think having 4 children has the same effect, even if you're not pregnant.  I can't even really blame it on sleep deprivation, as my baby sleeps from 8:15 pm until 5:30-6:30am. 

Someone looked at my baby the other day and asked me "What's your little boy's name?" My automatic reaction was "David".  Then I thought a second and said, "Wait. No it's not.  His name's John".  Besides not being used to telling people my baby's name, he's my "baby", not my "little boy".  My "little boy" is 3 years old.

I also now find myself counting children when I'm out and about.  I'm pretty sure it's just a matter of time before I leave one of them somewhere.  We've started having a roll call when we get in the car, to make sure they're all there.

So, if you ask me a question sometime and I just give you a blank stare, know that I've just forgotten whatever the answer is, or even that you just asked me a question.  Catch up with me in another 20 years or so, and I may start remembering things then.

Family traditions

I love having my very own family traditions.  I have plenty of family traditions that I've inherited from my family or that my husband has inherited from his family, but there's something special about family traditions that we've created ourselves. 

We went to the Orem Summerfest carnival one year out of curiosity and had fun.  The next year we decided we should try again.  Pretty soon it became something our children expected and looked forward to every year, asking when it was going to happen again. 

I think it helps in defining our families as we develop traditions that our truly and uniquely our own.

Laundry fun

I'm pretty sure no one has as much fun doing laundry as my kids.

How'd we get here?

This morning at breakfast I had one of those moments where you just look around you and think "How'd we get here?" I was sitting at my kitchen table eating a pancake breakfast.  My husband was seated across from me.  My 5 year old daughter was also across from me dipping her pancakes generously in syrup as it strung from her plate to her mouth.  My 3 year old son was next to me gobbling his pancakes down like he hadn't eaten for days.  My 2 year old daughter was under the table, incredibly sticky, saying "teeter totter, teeter totter" as she tried to balance on the table legs.  My 2 month old baby was sitting behind me on the counter in a bouncy chair crying because he wasn't being held while we were all sitting at the table eating.  The noise level was amazing, especially for 8:30 am. 

I looked around me and thought, "Wow.  How'd we get here?"  Seven years ago I would have been sitting at this same table by myself quietly reading the newspaper as I ate my Cheerios for breakfast.  Now, here I was sitting there with a husband and 4 children.  I assure you I know the mechanics of how I got to that point.  It was just one of those moments where you realize how blessed you are and how quickly time passes.