Space invaders...

Since the moment I first conceived, my children have been invading my space. First in the womb, and then in all manner of ways after their births. Since they've been getting older and more self-sufficient, I have noticed that they don't need me quite as much, they don't cling to me constantly like they used to and sometimes I miss it. Last night was not one of those times.

Richie has been in the unfortunate habit for a few weeks of crying around 1am. Normally, with the others, I would have driven a hard line and made them stay in their own bed even if they cried for awhile. But, with Carson in school and without the luxury of sleeping in until whenever, I don't want to let him cry it out. So, he's been coming in to sleep with Mommy and Daddy.

He brought, as usual, his own pillow and blanket to add to our already crowded space. Little Dude insistsed on sleeping in the middle. Then, since he had his own blanket, he proceeded to kick all of the covers down below his feet. This meant that I had to scrunch down to the middle of the bed to have any warmth for myself. BUT, that caused me to be right in the line of fire of his flailing limbs which he could not for heaven's sake keep still. I was kicked repeatedly about the head and back from 1:30am until 2:30am. When he wasn't kicking, he was scratching his leg. And scratching......and scratching.

At 2:30am, our daughter came in and said she was having bad thoughts. I mumbled something about turning on her closet light and she went back to bed. After another half hour of freezing and flailing with Richie, she came in again. Frustrated, I think I said something about bad thoughts being a choice and how she should choose to think about something good like candy canes and pink ponies. That didn't help as she went into her room and began to wail. Awesome.

So, I left Richie in the bed with Daddy hoping he wouldn't fall off the bed with all of his tossing and then let Avery sleep in the floor in the boys room (in Richie's normal preferred spot) and I took the bottom bunk under Carson. We were all invading each other's space. And after musical beds, I think I finally settled in for a couple of hours of uninterrupted sleep except for the ocassional start as I rolled over to find the red, glowing Spiderman head night light staring directly into my bed.

Not the best night's sleep.