Operation Sleep: The Eigth Night

I knew that I was jinxing myself as soon as I typed the words "in the home stretch" last night. But, I merrily typed and published them anyway and had to face the consequences. Molly woke up at 1:30 a.m. and decided that she wasn't happy about the new phase after all -- and she made sure Max and I knew it (à la Night Four). But, Mom held firm and, after lots of comforting pats, soothing words, and desperate recitations of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," Molly finally went back to sleep. She woke up at six for her morning milk, then stayed in bed with me and went back to sleep until 8:15 a.m. She slept through the 7 a.m. phone call and even Max chirping over the monitor didn't phase her -- we didn't get out of bed until we heard Dad come home, which almost never happens. Dad was nice enough to let Mom get a nap in before he went to bed, so we all ended up tolerably well rested.

When M&M went down for their nap, Mom indulged in a good cup of coffee and a mediocre novel. Sometimes the strategy of picking a library book based on the cover art fails miserably (kind of like selecting a bottle of wine based on the label design ;). But, the great thing about library books is that you don't have to feel guilty about your unintellectual process of selection -- if you end up with a crummy book you're only out a little time and a short drive (instead of being $20-30 poorer). I probably wouldn't have made it past the first couple of chapters, except I didn't have any other library books left to read.

When Max and Molly did get up, we decided to make a quick trip to the library, to address my reading material dilemma. Max was so excited to be taking a ride to the "librardee" and was laughing with glee as soon as we got out of the car. Taking the two of them to the library and trying to keep them quiet and contained isn't an easy task, so we made a very quick trip through the adult fiction section (I'd already figured out what I wanted -- and made sure it was in -- before we left the house) and then headed over to the children's section. Max is always intrigued by the toys and the kid-sized seats in the children's section -- Molly just wants to run around like a crazy thing. We grabbed a couple of Disney DVDs, managed to successfully navigate the checkout line, and tromped back out to the car.

We went home for dinner, play time, baths, and bed -- Molly was begging to go to sleep before it was even 6 p.m. I had planned to make my favorite Michigan pasties for dinner, but by the time we got back from the library it was already getting too late. So, we had tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches instead. Max did help me make up the dough for the crust -- we'll have the pasties for dinner tomorrow instead. So, stay tuned for tomorrow's exciting installment of "Will Molly Sleep?" -- wish me luck!