The good, the bad, and the sleepless.

As I write this, I'm listening to Will cry upstairs. Poor kid is already teething, and he sucks at getting himself to sleep anyways. And there goes Alinea...

Ok, I'm back. Whew. Success.

Having Will and Linny share a room is rough. As I said, he cannot get himself to sleep, plus he still wakes up a few times a night. Every night. A good night is 3-4 times. A bad night is 5 or more. And if it's before Linny is asleep, like tonight, he wakes her up. Sometimes it's vice versa. Yeah, my kids don't sleep. I'm getting desperate. I might have to go spend the night at a hotel or something and let Chris sleep train Will one night.

It's been one of those days. Today was Chris' first Sunday having to work again, which meant wrangling the kids at church alone. I'm grateful Chris is back at work again, but I miss him a lot. Especially on Sundays. Handing the kids at church by myself can be a challenge, but usually I do pretty good.

Unless, like today, it's just in the air.

You know what I'm talking about? Whether it's your kids, or a bunch of kids at daycare or at church, they all just have the willies, and one or five of them start crying, and then they all start feeding off it and they ALL just decide to misbehave? Well, it was in the air today. Not only were the Primary kids a bunch of monkeys, but Will would not sleep at all at church. Usually he'll pass out for a nap at some point, but not today. He was fussy even when I held him (that's the other thing - neither of my kids will fall asleep in my arms. Never have, never will). Plus, Alinea was in Dr Jekyll mode, running down the pews at church, making loud noises on purpose, screaming when you tried to settle her down. Sigh.

It wasn't really a terrible day, just exhausting. To the point that I'm going to wrap up this post in a minute, have some wonton soup, and fall into the welcoming arms of the pillows on my bed.

I want to end it on a positive note though. I was fortunate enough to attend the baptism of a new family tonight. Lara, and her daughter Chenoa, have been attending our ward for awhile now. Chenoa just turned 8 and I've been fortunate to get to know her in our Primary classes. Baptisms are always cool experiences, but tonight was just special. There were so many people in attendance that we had to move rooms, and cheesy as it sounds, there was a lotta love in that room. I just think about this new family and the journey they have been to get to this place, and hope they feel all that love.

It was hard to concentrate on the experience itself, having all three kids in tow at 7:30 at night (eek!), but I was fortunate enough to sit by a dear friend and her family who are always so amazingly helpful with the kids, especially Alinea. If they hadn't been sitting by me and helping, I don't know if we would have made it through the evening.

I know not everyone always understands my religious views and why I have them, but experiences like tonight have a lot to do with them. Obviously it was important enough that I hauled my three kids out to see it. But even with all that was going on, I felt really upbeat and happy afterward. I was glad they got to see the joy of this family, and share in that.

And really, isn't joy what it's all about?

And on that note, I bid you goodnight. My soup is calling my name...