sleep? why?

Wow has it really been almost a month since I posted? Doh! I've been busy. Sorry, grandmas.

The recurring theme in my life lately is a lack of sleep... ever since Wesley graduated to a toddler bed, he doesn't really nap and likes to be crazy at night. If I'm not getting the solid (and wonderful) 3-hour naps I'm used to in the afterneoon, there are lots of things I'm not getting done during the day. That I end up doing at night. Hence I stay up waaaaay past my bedtime doing things like logging in hours for work or cleaning or exercising or reading my book club selection.

But even more crazy lately have been my last two weekends:

Last weekend was the first (of many I hope!) ladies' weekend with some of my "new mom" friends. We all attended a new moms' group at a local hospital when our itty bitty babies were born. Now our kids are pushing 3 and we are inseparable. One friend I get together with and run with our fancy strollers at least once a week. one throws this amazing Easter Egg hunt every year (we've been to two of three), one friend has a little girl who loves trains almost as much as Wesley does. These friends rock. And last weekend, we all left the toddlers at home for some fun mommy time.

But first, let me back up for a second. Last Thursday was a funny day. Wesley usually has his quiet time from 1 to 3 PM. If he doesn't go to sleep, I let him out of his room and we go about our day. Well, he didn't sleep, and after 3 he was being a real pill. In a bad mood. He was throwing his sippy, being defiant, whining like crazy. I've never used this method of discipline before, but I told him he needed to go lay down until he was calm. I put him in his bedroom and closed the door. It was about 4ish... I think I got a phone call or something and before I knew it, it was 4:15 and eerily quiet. He had fallen asleep. This is bad news -- 4 PM is WAY too late to take a nap.

Shane got home at 5 pm and we tried to wake Wesley up. It wasn't happening. Shane said we could let him sleep until 6... but when we tried to get him up at 6 that didn't work either. That kid was not budging out of his room. I wish I woulda thrown water on his head or something. Ha! Anyway, we decided to chance it and let him sleep. Maybe he was really tired! We figured if he woke up in the middle of the night he'd see it was pitch black and go back to sleep.

Wrong. His door opened at 3:15 AM. And he was ready to go. Instead of staying in his room he ran out of his room and turned on every light in the house. He came into our room and started talking to us, "mommy sleeping! daddy sleeping!" He wanted water. He needed a new diaper. It was no use. He was up.

I have to work on Fridays so I got up at 3:15 AM with my son. I had a nice long time to get ready for work before catching my bus at 5:30 AM. (yes, I do that twice a week!)

So, back to my moms weekend. I had already been up since 3:15 AM that day, so I was TIRED! And I stayed up until 2 AM! My eyes were so droopy. I could have gone to sleep at 7 or something. But my friends are so fun and we laughed about everything and we had a total blast and I didn't want to go to bed!! I really thought I'd maybe get 24 hours of consecutive awake time; I conked out just an hour short. The next day I got up at 8:30 or so and did yoga before breakfast. Then stayed up until 2 AM again. These friends are worth staying up late for!! We played card games and talked about crazy husbands and shared secrets and even discussed living wills and 529s. That's how cool these friends are.

So, starting this week, I was already sleep deprived. THEN last night, I decided to skip out on sleep as well! The Young Women in our ward were having a sleepover with the goal to read the entire Book of Mormon. All 500+ pages of it. Literally. WOW.

They got started at 5 PM or something and read read read. The leaders arranged for "special visitors" to come every couple hours with treats and to help read. At 7, one sister in the ward came with dinner. At 9, a Bishopric member came with chocolate chip bars. At 11, a sister in the ward came with chips and salsa. I was the crazy visitor who came at 1 AM!!! That's right! I made my famous M&M cake that I've made like 4 times but never been able to eat myself! The girls recognized it because I made it for the dessert auction last year. And it was goooood... chocolate cake with white frosting and M&Ms.

The girls were able to take breaks when their guests came, but overall they speed-read the Book of Mormon all night. I guess the point was just to get through it. Some parts I like to read slowly and talk about and dwell on, but that is for another activity :-) In 6 hours they did 100 pages, and when I got there at 1 AM they were on page 138. I read through 145 (Jarom, Omni, and Words of Mormon). They said what they usually did was have a trio of people trade off and read several chapters, then they switched and another group read until they were tongue tied. The biggest books in the the Book of Mormon, Mosiah and Alma, they "skipped" in that they only read the chapter headings. All of them. That only took about a half hour and got them to page 368. Then they picked up again reading every verse, taking a break to sleep from 3 to 7, I think. They had a visitor bring fruit at 7 AM and the Bishop brought breakfast at 9 AM. They were done the 531-page Book of Mormon before noon.

What a group! And another great reason not to sleep! I was honored to have been invited. I chose to bring much sugar to keep them going ;-)

So with that, I must bid you adieu... no Saturday Night Live for me tonight. I need some sleep! I'll try to be a better blogger! I had an interesting experience today at the Sounders soccer game, so that will be my next post... until then, go to bed!