One of my dearest friends.
It’s a bad news, good news day.
Bad: The three year old no longer naps every day.
Good: He does stay in his room for quiet (ish) time, and he is very tired at bedtime, meaning (almost) no shenanigans.
Bad: I have no willpower when there are Oreos in the house.
Good: There are Oreos in the house.
My entire lunch was round. Sushi rolls and Oreos. It’s the best lunch I’ve had in a long time, and I’m considering becoming one of those weirdos who only eats round things. We have a friend who won’t eat anything spherical (cherry tomatoes, pearl onions), but I wonder how he feels about round things?
And now I have Baby Got Back in my head. …round thing in my face…
More good news, bad news.
Good news: A fresh blog post.
Bad news: So far it’s nonsensical ramblings. Like Brad Pitt’s cologne.
We are incredibly sleep deprived around here right now. Exhibits A and B – the nonsense and the Oreo binge. The thing is, I haven’t slept through the night in a couple weeks. I know that anyone with a newborn is thinking, “Cry me a river, lady.” To you, the most sleep deprived of all the sleep deprived, I offer my sympathies. And this bit of hope – babies eventually start sleeping, as will you.
That, there, is precisely the problem at my house. The children usually sleep. They sleep well. Though they’re early risers – if they’re still asleep at 7:30, I start the parental mind games freak out – they typically sleep 10-12 hours every night. Sweet. But in the past month each child has had a cold and cough. Then I caught the cold, with a whopper of a cough. And a sinus infection. I’d get up in the mornings and leave a crime scene-like outline of my body, surrounded by used tissues.
Finally we are all well, and yet I’m still not sleeping through the night. One child keeps having bad dreams and waking me up for comfort (once I’m up, I’m up for a while); the other child is adjusting to his new big kid room, and I think it’s causing some bathroom regression. We’ve had our share of disasters, usually very early in the morning. The result: people are up at all hours around here, soothing scared children or cleaning up wet, dirty children. Washing machines and bathtubs are running before anyone can even mutter, “Coffee, need coffee,” much less make the coffee.
So I’m scattered and forgetful. More than usual. And I feel no need to fight through the fatigue to produce a cohesive blog post.
I did have a point today, though. For starters, I want to make sure nobody thinks I’m complaining. Granted, if you are all huffy, wondering why I have the nerve to complain about being tired, then we probably can’t ever be friends anyway. Yet I want to be clear that I’m not complaining. I do, on a regular basis, bitch and moan about things, but right now I am not.
Yes, I am tired, but I’m also healthy. My family is healthy. I’m not talking little c colds here, although I am happy those are over, but big C cancer or [insert any awful illness here]. In recent months we’ve seen miracles happen, but we’ve also witnessed debilitating disease and death. And right now we know people fighting hard, some of them with the knowledge that their battle is going to be short lived without the most miraculous of miracles.
It’s humbling. It’s sad. It’s scary. It could be any of us. And so I am grateful for the health we have right now. I’m thrilled that I have two little boys who keep me up at night. I’m ecstatic that I’ll probably have to pay extra fees to get these bags under my eyes on my next flight. These bags are born of love.
And if I can (Who am I kidding? It’s my blog – of course I can.), I’d like to leave you with this urging: If you find yourself feeling blessed, share it. Do something kind for someone who is sick, whether it’s your time or your money, whether it’s for one person or an entire organization.
And go ahead, eat an Oreo while you’re at it. The stomach ache is so worth it.
I wonder…
:: Do you get annoyed when people who seemingly have a nice life start complaining about little things (like being tired)?
:: Does it bother you that I got a little soapboxy up there? I swear I pass no judgement – that’s absolutely not my thing – I just feel passionately about this.
:: Can you come over here and physically remove the Oreos from my crumby hands?
Lapsed homemaker. Looking to hire a full-time housekeeper who will work for the sheer joy of a job well done and free coffee. Interested parties, DM please. 
Only sometimes, a little bit, about certain things, that I’m sensitive about. Mostly, I think complaining is a great thing, so long as it isn’t mostly what you do. And I’m with you on being tired. I thought when the baby started sleeping through the night, it was a done deal, sleep was back. But it goes in phases and being sick or scared can mess it up. My teenager, she sleeps until noon, though. That’s cool.
Ramblings are encouraged. Isn’t that the beauty of a personal blog: you can write what you want and readers can read what they want.
I would posit that most people do not have the perspective required to be thankful for all they have (good health included). It may be a blessing not to have perspective, but it can be annoying when you are in the midst of a bad time and others are going on about something trivial. As I am not currently suffering through anything but the day-to-day crazies, you’re sick / not sleeping house sounds pretty bad. I hope you get sleep soon!
Everyone needs to complain. I am happy to listen. Also happy to read a post here! Missed seeing you at this space, but OK to hang around while you work on getting sleep. Sleep and life priorities and of course OREOS are WAY more important than blogging 🙂
P.S. We are resorting to “quiet-ish” afternoon nap time here too … Love/Hate relationship with it… that’s all I have to say…
I am not taking the Oreo’s away…. eat and enjoy! They’re to good to not!
Ummm… this is your blog so I think that you can get all soap boxy if you want! You can swear, yell, complain, or do whatever you want! If people don’t like it.. oh well!
Okay, so your first I wonder… I don’t know that it matters how good someones life appears to be to us because we don’t know the entire story. And no matter who you are, how awesome your life is or how terrible it is everyone gets tired once in a while. I’m tired…
We really do have so much to be thankful for! Your post made me laugh…and it also made me start despising spherical food. I never thought about pearl onions before that way. I never want to see a pearl onion again.
I don’t think it’s annoying or petty — in fact I find it rather refreshing when someone who has a seemingly perfect life comes out and admits that they are tired/frustrated/etc. Now I WOULD find it annoying if they were all, “We just couldn’t fit in ALL of the travelling we wanted to do this summer! I mean Rome and Paris and Disney were so great, but I’m sad we missed out on Mexico!!!” THAT’S annoying.
I don’t think you (or anyone really) should apologize for venting about being tired. Fatigue is a real thing, and I know that I can’t function well as a mom when I’m tired from getting up multiple times a night (which your nights sound eerily like ours). Possibly related: I haven’t been a very good mom lately.
My constant complaint is that I’m tired. Even now, where there is a big chance that my position will be terminated by the end of the year, and I’m dealing with headaches that seem to be resistant to any treatment of any kind . . . my main complaint is that I’m tired. So, I always give people an extra-wide berth when they complain about being tired . . . because, sometimes, the tired is a great big redwood that is a forest in itself, but it doesn’t mean that the rest of the forest isn’t there.
Did that make any sense?
In the Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan, there is a baboon who only eats foods that end in O. This provided difficulties early on in the books, but he’s now learned to just put whatever he might want to eat in Jell-O, so he can eat it.
mmmmmm, sushi.
Let it all out!
We’ve had some crappy nights here. Julia (4) has come to visit every night for the past week at 1 am.
I’m about to bribe her big time to stay in her bed.
I think I only get annoyed when people truly don’t appreciate what they have and are just chronic complainers. And my house is the same as yours right now, our room is just a revolving door of kids who can’t sleep, have to pee, need a drink, etc. etc. We have no Oreos but I’m totally addicted to those frosting and sprinkle covered animal crackers. It’s a problem.