Who's Idea Was This Sleep Thing?

It's difficult to focus on a blog post when the Red Wings and Bruins are shaking my television off it's supports. Kinda wishing I was at Joe Louis Arena and not propped up on a couch typing into the void. I feel on auto-pilot today and I don't like it one little fraction of a bit. It was a long night with Zo wide awake at 3 am again...unwilling to go down for Mom...similarly stubborn for Dad...finally I made peace with the notion that I was going to have to hunker down with Zed until she drifted off. I spent 3 hours squished into a tiny bed with Zoey's funky night breath whispering onto my cheek. It was equal parts sweet and exhausting.

"Are you happy Daddy came to lay down with you?"

"Yes. I love you Daddy."

"I love you too, but we have to go to sleep. It's the middle of the night. We have to try to fall asleep."

"Okay Daddy."

"Will you close your eyes and try?"

"Yes. I will close my eyes and try. I will sing too. You wanna sing?"

"No Zo...I want to sleep."

"Okay Daddy, close your eyes and try."

Zoey does this thing where she can turn a conversation back into you so that it all sounds like her idea in the first place. It's incredible. Six feet three inches was not squished into five feet of bed so that I could try to sleep. The issue with sleeplessness was only mine in a secondary sense. Zed was the one not sleeping. THis discourse went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until suddenly, at 6 am, I stumbled bleary eyed out of Zo's room. I caught another three hours and then it was time to go swimming.

Parenting lesson # 473...Swimming at the Y takes precedence over catching up on sleep EVERY time. You're best served by enthusiasm and a short memory.