naps are for the birds

For the past few months, the triplets have been resisting their afternoon nap. If we're out running errands or returning from an outing, they will easily fall asleep in the car. But if I put them down to bed with the purpose of sleeping, they generally won't.

Not only are the triplets refusing their nap, so is their little brother. If I'm really lucky, I can squeeze a 60-minute nap out of Henry at some point during the day. There is no doubt in my mind that this child is chronically overtired, but ... I'm not going to write about that, today.

Instead, I'm going to write about my chronic over tiredness. Which I know is aggravated by training for a marathon. And working. And only getting three hours of sleep on Sunday night because I was pulled in to updating my Amazon Store (that has been a lot of fun ... I've especially enjoyed adding descriptions for all the items.)

But mostly, I think my over tiredness is because I have NO BREAK during the day and thus far, the endorphin rush from all this exercise I've been doing hasn't kicked in. I'm constantly going, going, going. And I'm chased after by a baby who always wants to be held and nursed. And I'm picking up after children who thrive on making a disaster wherever they go. And that whole Day Light Savings time "springing forward" thing has wreaked havoc on my schedule.

Last night I fell asleep at around 9:00 while watching a documentary. When Charlie came to bed at 11:00 PM, I woke up when he gave me some pajamas and pried a cup out of my hand.

Even though I got a solid eight hours of sleep, this morning I was dragging. So after breakfast, I took the children for a walk around the block. I thought the fresh air would help rejuvenate me and maybe, tire the kids out. Because we've been talking about different kinds of homes that animals live in, I thought this would be a good opportunity to make a bird's nest.

We gathered sticks and pine needles.


We made a little mound.


We tried to tuck everything in together.


We searched out some bugs for the nest...


And we picked berries for any lucky aviary residents.


We spruced it up with some flowers.


Then, we stuck it in to a tree.

We called for birds to come and live in the nest and after a solid 10 minutes, retreated home slightly discouraged that not a one winged species had answered our call.

We had lunch and I was feeling so tired I thought for sure I could lay down and sleep for the next 10 years. But the kids? They weren't tired at all. And after today, I've decided that there are few feelings worse in the entire world than when you're exhausted and several small children who are under your direct supervision aren't.

So, I read everyone a few stories and put a groggy Henry in to his crib. I brought the triplets outside to the garage to play so Henry could have a quiet house. But mostly so I wouldn't have to listen to him SCREAM for the five minutes it would take before he crashed out. We sat on the floor playing with stuffed animals for about 30 minutes and at some point I must have dozed off.

I fell asleep while sitting upright in Indian style.

When I snapped to - MOMENTS LATER - the kids had quietly emptied several of the storage boxes that had been holding clothes for the summer. They had loaded all of their stuffed animals in to a wagon and were trying to pull it out the side door. Someone had activated the sprinkler system and they had unraveled an entire roll of teflon tape around the cables on the garage door.

Just then, I could hear Henry inside waking up from his nap. When I looked at my watch, I noticed that 45 minutes had lapsed since he had been put down and he was now up.

I collected the baby from his crib and returned to the garage which had been turned upside down. I pulled the partially jammed wagon back in to the garage. I put all the stuffed animals away. I put all of the summer clothes away. I put all of Charlie's tools away. I turned off the sprinklers. Then, I looked at my four children and said, "YOU ARE SUCKING THE LIFE OUT OF MY BODY!!"

Then, I felt guilty for telling them that. So I brought everyone in to the house and put on the movie Pinocchio, which I had picked up during an outing yesterday and had planned to put in someone's Easter Basket, next month.

You know, if *I* was a bird, I would be sleeping soundly in that floral nest at the end of our street.

But only after I booted all my hatchlings out.