ZZZzzzzz.......

3:03 a.m. - I am awakened by the sound of my 16 month old's cry. I lay there for half a minute trying to decide if this is the "I have to do something about this" cry or if it's the "He'll go back to sleep soon" cry.

3:03 and 30 seconds - I decide I have to get up. I walk 45 feet across the house. When I am 2 feet from the door, the cry stops. I turn around and walk the 45 feet back to bed. I'm smiling as I crawl back into bed, "whew, he's going back to sleep."

3:03 and 45 seconds - As soon as my head hits the pillow, the cry starts again. It's like my pillow set off an alarm or something. How do they know how to do that??

So, at this point I procede to get up and deal with the crying child. As soon as I enter the room, the aroma hits me and I know exactly why this poor child is awake at this ungodly hour. Of course, I take him out of his crib and begin the process of changing his diaper. At this point, he is wet, dirty and tired, and therefore continues to cry uncontrollably while I'm fumbling for the wipes and new diaper. Since this is not enough fun on its own, I now hear my four year old from his room, "Mama!"

"It's okay, buddy, I'm just changing his diaper."

(Obviously can't hear me) "Maammaa!"

"I'm coming, but I'm changing his diaper!!" (16 month old still crying.)

(Still can't hear me...) "MMaaaammmmmaaaa!"

Thankfully at this point the other adult living in the house enters the scene. Daddy goes to talk to the four year old, who of course wants mommy. Daddy returns to the crying diaper scene and thankfully this crying child says, "Daaadddddddyyy" in his most pathetic voice. Score one for me! I hand him off and walk to the 4 year old's bedroom.

Hmmm...daddy had shut the door. What do I do? Maybe he already fell back asleep. Do I risk going away and hearing "Mama!" as soon as I hit the pillow? Nope, I'm going in.

"Hi honey, did you need me?"

"Nope, daddy shut the door for me." (because he couldn't get up and do this himself?)

"Okay, goodnight." I leave and shut the door.

"Mama?" (Now what?)

I open the door. "Yes?"

"Since you are the closest one to my fan switch, could you turn on my fan?" It's so good to know that someone in this house can think logically in the middle of the night.

"Sure honey, good night."

I'm heading back for bed when I realize that daddy still has the little one in our bedroom. I can't risk walking back in there and starting the whole thing over again. So, I comfortably lay down on the couch with no pillow and no blanket and wait for the bedroom to clear out.

In all actuality, this whole experience didn't take that long. I happily crawled back into bed at 3:28 a.m., where I proceded to lay wide awake for the next hour thinking I would probably be blogging about this at some point today.

Finally, sleep overtook me somewhere around 5:00 a.m., where I rested comfortably until 6:20 when the alarm went off so I could go outside and pick beans in the garden in two feet of mud.

I don't know about all of you, but I'm signing off to go take a nap.