How do you sleep at night?

Most nights sleep is elusive around here. For the most part we are night owls...programmed that way through no fault of anyone. My husband is not a night owl. D seems to not be a night owl. But K and M are like their mother. They'd just as soon stay up late at night and sleep later in the morning (although the sleeping later in the morning often has to be suggested the night before).

This break from school has been really fun so far. The big kids have stayed up later and we've played Wii games. They've mostly slept in and come in to cuddle with me in the mornings. I would love to have nights like this all the time. Darn school and having to learn and stuff!

Except I know my kids enjoy school most of the time. I don't think I have the patience for homeschooling. I wish I did. I would guess my kids would miss the activity of the schools anyway. But this has nothing to do with what I was writing about anyway. So. Nice tangent Heather.

The evenings arrive are met with much resistance here. No one wants to sleep when it is "time" to sleep. My son in particular gets out of bed at least 4 times to "use the bathroom" even though he's used it less than 20 minutes prior. I started to worry about his bathroom habits about a year ago because I thought he might be diabetic. Well, he's not and apparently he just pees a lot. So that's fun to have a kid with a teeny tiny bladder.

M was shocked to learn that I "knew" that she did not go to sleep right away when we tucked her in. Funny how things in her room tend to change position from when I've tucked her in at night to the morning. Couldn't be because she's playing or reading or whatever after we've declared "lights out".

Funny thing about "lights out" is that M has progressed to trying to be secretive. She uses her night light to read, huddling near the light by the wall...or finds a flashlight and lays in bed with the dim light. K on the other hand continues to not care that we can see his light is on in his bedroom, yet he seems shocked when we enter and tell him he needs to go to sleep.

I can always tell when it has been a wonderful full day with my kids. Everyone goes to sleep without issue...and mostly within minutes of the declared bedtime. If only their mother was smart enough to go to bed early on those nights too.