Sleepwalking
On making lemonade (and Magic Shell)
We have had a rough week of sleep thanks to some lingering illnesses plaguing our house.
Here, I attempt to find the silver lining in one such early morning wake-up.
When your day begins at 3:15 a.m., a few good things happen:
You don’t have to keep your dogs away from the mess when the baby spits the banana and milk she guzzled all over the floor
You get first pick of the Libby skip-the-line holds
You can restart the laundry that you forgot to move to the dryer last night
You can gather all the library books you need to return in relative peace, rather than doing what you usually do, which is frantically fling them into a bag while yelling at the big kid to put ON his SHOES I have asked you FIVE TIMES and telling the baby that she is TOO HEAVY to be HELD right now Mommy needs a MINUTE
You can groggily realize, following said baby around as she toddles through the kitchen at 5 a.m., that she’s yawning aggressively and might actually go back down for a little more sleep
You can get a little more sleep yourself, thanks to your saintly husband taking the big kid and dogs on a walk while you snooze
And when your energy starts to fade around 2 p.m. — because even though that extra hour of sleep was a godsend, it was still the fifth … sixth? consecutive night of broken sleep — you have no qualms about a midday Coke for a boost
Nor do you have qualms about a post-dinner bowl of ice cream1 with homemade Magic Shell2
And later that night, when the baby appears to be doing yet another repeat of the two-hour middle-of-the-night wake-up bonanza, you can remind yourself that this too shall pass
And that you survived last night
And today
And maybe tomorrow you can have two Cokes
LOL. I have literally never had qualms about eating ice cream.
A little bit of coconut oil + a handful of chocolate chips together in a bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds and stir until smooth. Pour over ice cream. Stores perfectly at room temperature in a mason jar if you make too much.