The Joy of Parenting - Waking Up

Every parent with small (or older) children knows that there is no way we get the sleep we need, let alone the sleep we want. On Mother's Day, hubby's gift to me was to let me sleep in as long as I wanted, and when he went to check on my around noonish, I still wasn't really done sleeping. Over the last years, I have learned to sleep whenever and almost wherever I can, just to catch a few more "zzz"s throughout the day.

But children always tend to find a more or less creative way to interrupt our oh so sweet slumber. After living with a growing number of children for over 7 years now, here are my top three sleep interruptions:

3. Awaken from deep sleep as a little hand is prying open my eyelids. In my still sleep-infused vision, a face with wide open eyes and an "oh"-shaped mouth slowly appears.  It was so absurd and funny, I even forgot to be mad for being woken up  :-) (This happened one Sunday morning a few years ago, not quite sure any more if it was Lily or Violet.)

2. Repeatedly getting whacked over the head with a pack of tissues (Calvin waking my from my nap this afternoon).

1. "Maaaaaamiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!! I PUUUUUUKEEEEEEED!!!!!!!!!!"  (alternatively: retching sounds from the child's bedroom) Every parent's favorite at 3 am, followed by at least 30 minutes of washing out smelly food residues from sheets, showering a somewhat shell-shocked child, finding new jammies and sheets, safely tucking said child back into bed and then washing the sheets and jammies.

My question to all the kids out there: why do you never call Daddy for jobs like that??  :-)

Happy Monday, everyone!