Kids Make Us Tired But They're Worth It

My story of the past couple of days begins with a camping sleepout with none other than Janna "I Like to Talk A Lot At Bedtime" Vance.

Campfire before bed. Janna enjoys a freshly roasted marshmallow. This is before she sears her fingers on the hot poker and wails about not appreciating campfires.

Strangely, in the 8+ years we've been together, I think this is just the second marshmallow I've ever roasted with Chrissy. I was curious. Was Chrissy a lightly-browned marshmallow-type girl? Or a fully charred marshmallower? To my surprise (and, evidently, hers), she enjoys marshmallows barely cooked at all. I guess she's a naturalist.

Janna smiles at me in appreciation as we tucked ourselves into the tent for the night. She smiled at me, stroked my hand, and quietly murmured, "You're beautiful, Dad."

I should have known better than to believe that that would be the end of the night for us. You see, Janna comes alive at night. After lulling me to a false sense of peace and security, she innocently unleashed her inner reserve of social energy, talking to me about nearly anything that crossed her mind until I felt compelled to document these interactions with my camera.

Long story short, eventually she did fall asleep, and then I did too. Only to be woken up by her intense shivering the next morning at 4am. I had forgotten that Janna is also unable to sleep motionless. She strays in all kinds of horizontal directions while she sleeps,to the point where she rarely wakes up under her covers. In the warmth of the house, this is ok, but in twelve-degree weather...

Eventually, I invited her to sleep in my sleeping bag with me. Which was fine, except it meant that I couldn't role over. I found myself lying in an extremely awkward angle, perpetually fearful of squishing flat my incredibly small three-year-old daughter. Which was fine, until an incredibly articulate bird perched itself just outside of our tent and cried, "WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP!!!!!" Repeatedly.

By 4:30am, I surrendered to the overwhelming forces of camping and both Janna and I retreated to the safety of Chrissy's nicely warmed bed.

She forgave us eventually, I think.

Next morning: Janna miraculously has energy and is taunting her older brother with a game of "pretend to sleep on Jesse." 

O, the hardships of being an older brother!

Robyn, amused, decides not to play but instead to smoosh her mashed potatoes across her chest.

Other fun things occured the following day; of particular notice was the excellent pool party put on by the Oueises, which unforgivably, I did not capture on camera. However, good times were had by all. At the end of the day, Chrissy and I were left with the overall feeling of complete exhaustion, but we had to admit that the crazy times are worth it at the end of the day.

As long as they stay in bed.

Bemused,
Until next time...