Four. That's my limit.

Four is my limit. Four nights in a row of tackling bedtime by myself, and I'm tapping out. 

Why is bedtime when kids bring their best [and by best I mean worst] game? Can they sense that I've had a long day keeping up with them? [with no two hour nap in the middle of it thank-you-very-much] Can they sense that I'm at my most vulnerable and most likely to huddle in a corner clutching my ears and singing delusionally to myself? Are they really just that tired and in need of sleep? [Again, THEY GET A FREAKING NAP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY!] 

Whatever. My point is...

When Landon's home at bedtime, we can run a man-to-man defense, and things go pretty darn smoothly. One of us gets Emma, and gets her jammied-up, supervises teeth brushing, face washing, reads books, sings songs, and puts miss Scarlet O'Hara to bed. The other takes Rory, and does jammies for him, bottle, rocking in the rocking chair, and also up to bed. Usually, all of this is accomplished by 7:45 pm. 

When Landon's not home for bedtime, I'm down 2-1 running a zone defense. Meaning, it's 8:07, Rory is screaming and has peed through his diaper and pajamas (someone please explain to me how that even happens when I just changed him 20 minutes earlier?!?) Emma found a sippy cup of water and to be honest I have no idea what the hell she did but she was soaked and the carpet likewise, and once I change them BOTH into dry pajamas, she takes to leaping from the furniture and then sobbing for band-aids when she, of course, gets hurt. 

And this is night four of four. 

My children have no idea how lucky they are that dad's home for bedtime tomorrow night. 

I, however, know just how lucky we all are. These nights are hard, but it's also hard for Landon to be away from his kids and come home to a frazzled, overwhelmed, and strung-out wife. We are lucky that he has an important job that he loves so much. We are lucky that even though he misses a few bed times a week, he never misses breakfast with the early morning wake-up fairies we live with!