No, I’m not humming along to Billy Joel.  It was a rough night last night.

I’ve been here alone with the kids the last two nights while the husband has been in Chicago on business. Tuesday night went fairly smoothly, except for D, who is exceedingly attached to his daddy. He was having a really hard time holding back the tears when it was time for him to go to bed, but he was very brave and did manage to go to sleep on his own. I was able to get a full night’s sleep.  Oh happy day!  Or should I say, Oh happy night!

Last night didn’t go so well. For one thing, C has been running a low-grade fever off and on for a couple days, and yesterday afternoon R suddenly became a fountain of snot. Never a dull moment around here, I tell ya!

I managed to get C to sleep in her bed, and R went right down without a peep (thank goodness for small blessings!) but D was scared to be alone and I had a friend visiting so I couldn’t keep him company until he fell asleep.

I suggested that he might feel better if he were sleeping with C, and he thought that idea was just dandy, so I picked up C and put her in my bed, and D crawled in beside her and snuggled up next to her, and I patted myself on my back for a brilliant solution that did not interfere with my social life.

All was well until about 10PM when C came wandering downstairs, burning up with a fever of 104. The strange thing about this fever is, it doesn’t seem to make her lethargic, which is her typical fever reaction. Rather, it has an effect on her that is not unlike a four-year-old on speed. And remember, this is the child who LIKES to be sick. Needless to say, the rest of my visit with my friend was a series of interruptions.

After she left, I locked the doors and headed on upstairs to bed, where I found my son, sound asleep, lying spread-eagle, somehow managing to take up the entirety of my queen-size bed. C and I managed to finagle ourselves into a spot in the bed, and I began to drift off to never-never-land while she asked me such important and life-altering questions as, “Is American Idol on tomorrow?” and, “Am I going to still be sick in the morning?”

Remember, this is the 4-year-old-on-speed. In the thirty minutes that I was dozing off to sleep, I think she complained of being too hot at least ten times, tossed and turned and cavorted into a different sleeping position about every 15 seconds, asked to go potty one time (of course I have to take her, because heaven forbid she actually walk two feet into our master bathroom by herself), complained that D was touching her 26 times, and asked for more “med-sin” 133 times. (She not only likes being sick, she loves “med-sin”.)

Just about when she got herself settled into some semblance of sleep, D woke up with a nosebleed.

Was it a full moon last night?  Does anyone know?

The only child who actually slept through the night was the baby. Go figure.

Not even the weather was cooperating with me last night, as I was awoken sometime in the dead of night by crashes of thunder and streaks of lightning. Now, I enjoy a good thunder storm if it’s in the afternoon and I can watch out my sliders, but in the dark of night, when I’m the only adult in the house, a violent thunder storm instantly turns me into a whimpering baby. Fortunately all three children slept through it, and I managed to survive the ordeal by saying to myself over and over and over, “I’m an adult. It’s only thunder.”

Ironically, I awoke to a beautiful morning. We’ll just have to see if I can get through the day without a nap.