They All Rolled Over

There were three in the bed,
And the little one said:
"Roll over! Roll over!"
So they all rolled over,
And one fell out.

There were two in the bed,
And the little one said:
"Roll over! Roll over!"
So they both rolled over,
And one fell out.

There was one in the bed,
And the little one said:
"Hey! I'm lonely!"

Baby Charleigh is SO the "little one" from this song.  She is teething and tends to whine the second I leave her side...even if she's dead asleep.  She starts thinking about going down for the "night" between 2 and 3 AM, but she wants to be right beside me, and she's a bed hog.  Who knew that such a tiny person could edge two much bigger people out of bed?  Jim is always the first to go, and I move closer and closer to the edge until I say to Charleigh: "Ok!  I'm up, already! You can have the bed!"  I surround her sleeping body with pillows and walk away.  The whining commences almost immediately.  It is a steady, unpleasant drone, like that of a table saw, weedeater, or dental drill. 

I am so very tired.

Yesterday (Christmas Eve), Jim had to run some errands, and nothing at home went smoothly.  Charleigh whined most of the day.  At one point, I sat down to nurse her and turned on Animal Planet just in time to witness squirrels getting it on in frenzied delight, and Cade looked at me and burst into peals of laughter.  Clementine hasn't been feeling well and kept trying to climb my leg...except for the period of time during which she figured out that--if she slid her full sippy cup down into the center of a spool of curling ribbon--she could take the end of the ribbon and run through the house without the spool trailing behind her.  The spool spun with amazing speed on its axle, and Clementine wound curling ribbon around all the furniture, in every room. 

I started getting ready for our candlelight service at church four hours early.  Jim returned cheerful from his time in town; took one look at the red-and-white, striped elf stockings I was wearing; and started humming the Wicked Witch of the West tune.  I took off the stockings.  Neither Jim nor Cade could understand why I was getting ready so early...or how I could possibly be in a bad mood on Christmas Eve? 

We made it to church with three minutes to spare.  It was a Christmas miracle, but the sitting there was nearly as stressful as the getting there.  Clementine yelled: "YAY!" after almost every song and reading, "sang" the choir special on my hip, and--with great gusto--blew out my candle during the candlelight portion of the service.  Later, everyone gasped as she came within inches of destroying Jesus's three-tiered, white birthday cake.

Still, being at church helped me get my heart in the right place.  (Amazing that--just hours earlier--I had been yelling at Jim, from the kitchen: Where is Christmas?  There is no Christmas to be found, here!  This is craziness!) 

Jim and I ended up spending quality time with Cade until the middle of morning, and today (while Cade celebrated Christmas with his dad), Jim and I took turns napping and playing with the babies.  Now, Cade sleeps again under our roof, and the winter storm has made traveling impossible.  So I have relaxed.  I have stopped thinking about packing suitcases and cleaning and loading the van.  Earlier, I watched a movie, made Chex mix, and played games with my family.  I enjoyed it; I was present for and with my husband and children.  I am thankful for the snow that brought hush to my head on Jesus's birthday: a day that is--in my world--normally full of rush and fuss.

May God bless all of you this day and upcoming year.  Merry, Merry Christmas!