Hot and Sticky

Very Hot, Very Hot! I stepped out of the cool air conditioned conference room to head home yesterday evening and my glasses fogged up as though I had just stepped into a Russian Bath house. I was shocked and chagrined, I haven't worn glasses for long and this was the first time I had experienced this phenomena.

The weather has been tough, Merry's room is the only one with out an air conditioner and for the past two nights the heat has forced her into my bed in the middle of the night. Her mother takes up most of the bed and when you add a four year old, dad is left with but a sliver of mattress on which to sleep.

Last night was to be even more uncomfortable so to head off Merry's move into mom and dad's room I decided to switch up the sleeping situation, in my mind it would not be a problem. I have a very small mind.

I need to describe the logistics of the bedrooms in The Old Blue House, the upstairs, when we bought the place, consisted of two bedrooms, one on each side of the house. When Merry was impending, mom had me build a wall to split the guest room in half. The babies room in front, the guest room in back. Now the guest room is in front and the boys sleep in the back. If you open the door between the two rooms they both stay cool, due to the A/C unit in the boys room.

My plan was to have Merry sleep in the guest room. This got David very excited and he decided he wanted to sleep with Merry. Then Merry decided she wanted to sleep in David's bed and then I lost control of the situation. In and out of beds, back and forth, stop touching me, pillow fight, Ha Ha, Hee Hee. I gave it twenty minutes or so, hoping they would settle down. Hoping is not the best approach, very rarely does hoping produce the desired results.

I march into the guest room and insist that play time is over and that it is time to settle down. I remain in the room, in the dark, quietly keeping watch. They lay still for a minute or two and then it begins, the giggles, the ruslting under the covers, I remind them I am standing there and it quiets down. A few more minutes pass, it starts again, with more force and irritation I insist they settle down, no response, I do not exist. I snap David up and march into his room, boy under my arm, the experiment is over. David is going to sleep in his bed and he is not happy about it. I sit in the rocking chair ignoring his tears. He tosses all of his covers and pillows to the floor and wails and wails. I wait him out, and he settles down, lying in his bed, no pillow, no covers, quiet. I reason it is safe to leave. With in five minutes Merry is yelling from the guest room, I go in and there is David in bed with his sister. I pretend I do not see him and give him the chance to scatter back to his bed. He doesn't take it and I end up carrying him back to his bed and sitting guard for another forever.

Time passes and the crying stops, I sit tight and then David settles down, looks at me, asks for his pillows and covers and falls asleep. When I woke this morning Merry was not in my bed, that was a plus. The battle/skirmish we fought last night took two and a half hours or so and was all my doing. I should have set the situation up differently, I am not sure how. Having Merry spend the night in the guest room was a spur of the moment decision that threw the entire bedtime ritual into a tailspin. It was ten at night by the end of the battle and I was spent. Today will be hotter and stickier then yesterday. Tonight I am going to have Merry sleep in the guest room again, any ideas on how to manage it? I would like it to go smoother, as you can imagine.