The Imagination Movers Know How To Find The Wall
When you combine a Night Owl with an Early Bird, you get An Alexis--a creature who throws her head back and laughs in the face of any "expert" who says someone her age should get 10-12 hours of sleep per night. Recently, Alexis has been working on really testing the depths of her Early Bird skills, and it's probably my fault.
I think it was two months ago when a perky little person popped her face up against mine and shoved my eyelids open with her chubby little fingers. "Momma, I'm not sleepy," she said.
My alarm hadn't gone off yet, which meant it was Too Damn Early O'Clock. I growled, "Go find your father," and shoved my head under my pillow.
Alexis did find her dad that morning and he did what anyone with any sense would do--he delayed having to be a parent by turning on the Disney Channel and shoving a bowl of cereal in the kid's face. He leaves WAY before my alarm even goes off, so really, the best thing for Little Miss Not Sleepy to do was to curl up on the couch and let Mickey keep her company.
She decided to make it a habit.
Several times each week, Alexis somehow hears Mr. Husband rumbling around in the kitchen between 4:30 and 5:00 in the morning. She skips down the stairs and parks her butt on the couch so that she can happily spend a couple of hours hanging with Mickey and her Shredded Wheat.
A normal human being would rather sleep than watch TV at 5:00 in the morning. Obviously, she isn't normal.
Every time I wake up only to find my kid had disappeared to the family room, I think SURELY today will be the day that she lives to regret getting up so early. Every time I am wrong. She remains fully functional all through the day, and is usually still obnoxiously happy when her bed time rolls around at 9:00. It's disgusting, really. And exhausting. As in, I need a nap just thinking about it.
Today, though. TODAY. Today was the day that Alexis finally found her wall. She was wide awake at 4:00am. She was ready to get dressed and head to school because in her head, the sooner she got to school, the sooner it would be time to go to the Imagination Movers show. I managed to delay her for an hour, but then she went and found a sucker who would turn on a TV for her.
Fast forward SEVENTEEN hours. SEVENTEEN hours later, the child stood dancing and singing and generally having a crazy good time as Rich, Scott, Dave, and Smitty rocked out. One second she was happy. The next second it looked like an Alexis-shaped plane crash landed into the theater. She was still generally pleasant, but looking into her eyes was like standing in a black tunnel and seeing the telltale light as a train approached.
The train punched me in the face during the drive home after the show. I had told the kid it was OK if she fell asleep in the car. She responded by telling me it would be OK if I just screwed myself.
Perhaps not literally, but it's what she meant.
There was some nonsense about how she was thirsty and I must have taken her water out of the car and OMG how dare I leave her water at the table at dinner and WHERE IS SOME WATER, WOMAN. SERVE ME. OR DIE.
Apparently she couldn't sleep? Breathe? Exist? Something . . . unless she got a drink of water Right. That. Second. Last time I checked, I don't look like a drinking fountain, so she was just plain out of luck until we got home.
It was a very pleasant drive home. Or something.
But at least the show was really good.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Reader Comments (9)
Oh my gosh, the same thing happened to us on the ride home from the Yo Gabba Gabba show! It was the meltdown of the century, starting in the parking garage downtown and continuing until we got home in the south hills! It was worth it, though because the show was awesome. haha.
We told Sabrina (who gets up before anyone else in the house) she could go into the play room and play when she woke up. But we found she was playing too loudly. So then we told her she could turn on the little TV in there and watch Disney in the morning. She started getting up earlier and earlier. She finally started getting up while it was still dark and it started creeping toward the hour that I would get in after drinking in college. We finally told her enough. We had to unplug the TV (she snuck a few times) and tell her she had to stay in her room. She sleeps later if she doesn't have anything to run off and do. What is with these zombie children who don't need sleep?
She is like the energizer bunny! I can not believe she can function on that little amount of sleep.
Oh, and my two start whining the MOMENT they hit their booster seats about being huuuuungry and thiiiiiirsty. It is exasperating.
At least the show was good :D
Some kids can function on little sleep. I hope I don't have that problem with Jake. I wouldn't be able to use the TV because he can't see well enough to watch TV. That would mean I would have to entertain him. Oh geez... I'm knocking on wood.
I don't know what the heck it is about water at the end of the day, but almost all of our meltdowns have been because they need a drink NOW! I started keeping emergency water hidden under the seats rather than face their wrath (imagine 3 of them in your face?!?!) The Big Guy actually packs a cooler of water for the drive home for trip to Kennywood or the Big Butler Fair - we're scared of those thirsty kids late at night!
i'm almost 40 and i have always needed more sleep than your kid. she is amazing.
I completely forgot about this show until I turned on the Imagination Movers in concert on OnDemand last night. Dangit! My girls were like, "when can we see them in real life?" oops. mom fail.
anywho, I have the opposite problem: dragging my children out of bed in the morning is a Sisyphean feat. Akin to trying to get my husband out of bed, actually, so I know where they get that from. Although, of course, The Boy loves to wake up with me at 6 a.m., even though he went to bed at 9 p.m.
Thank goodness for Disney and cereal for those times I do need a little more sleep, and M decides an 8 a.m. nap is perfect.
My eldest used to be like that. I swear the kid ran from 5AM (when he would come into my bedroom asking for TV...I'd happily oblige and go back to snoring)...until 9PM at night...every night. And would stay up until midnight playing quietly with his toys. FIVE hours. every.single.night.
Well, he's a teenager now.
'Nuff said.
On the way home, Emily said, "I didn't think that was going to be so fun. BUT IT WAS!"
Also - I wanna see the badass photo.