a drama in one part

I hate to even put this is writing, but Ollie has developed a bedtime. 8 or 8:30pm. He still wakes up a bunch at night, but going to bed at 8pm and waking up a bunch is still better than going to bed at 11pm and waking up a bunch. Although I have to note it is particularly disorienting to go to bed at 10pm and be woken up again at 11:30pm.

So last night we put this bedtime into practice, and lo it was good. I scurried off to bed, as is my wont, and lo that was good too. Then at 11:30pm then baby alarm went off as is its wont. I have been so tired the past few months that it takes me a lot longer to wake up than usual so often he really gets himself worked up by the time I get there. So I woke up last night, and not only was the monitor reporting that Ollie was really worked up, but Aaron was standing in the doorway, emanating moroseness, like pigpen and the dirt cloud. Oddly, he was also strenuously volunteering to go take care of Ollie.

I usually nurse Ollie when he wakes up, so sending Aaron to do that job will result in a guaranteed angry baby, unless Aaron develops the ability to nurse him. I don't know about you, but I think that's between Aaron and his endocrinologist so I try not get involved. So Aaron goes and gets Ollie and comes back into the bedroom and closes the door and walks around with Ollie, who, predictably, has some complaints about the situation, as Aaron has not quite gotten the hormones tweaked correctly yet. I eventually grab the baby, while Aaron continues to stand there with the cloud billowing around him. I'll now take you to the resulting conversation:

Aaron: There's a thing. In the house. A bird. Or a bat. A thing.

Kate: MHmMMHMSHSM.

Aaron: *curls up in corner*

Kate, waking up enough to function, but not very well: What? What is it that is in the house?

Aaron: *peeks out from between his fingers*

Kate: Was it you who was sleeping in the same room as it was being?

Aaron, sobbing quietly: No.

Kate: Where is it?

Aaron: I DON'T KNOW. The kitchen. Or the basement. The next step was to army crawl over to turn on a light. But I didn't get that far. *grabs the baby and starts walking him back to sleep*

*Kate ventures down into the basement, locates a very cute little ball of bat, resists urge to cuddle it, figures out how to catch it, releases it outside, puts a brick over the hole it probably got in through, and goes back to bed*

Aaron: Is it safe to come out now?

Kate: MHmMMHMSHSM

fin

[ed note: I also saved a woman who was inexplicably losing her battle with the moving walkway in the airport and instantly located an urgently needed bathroom for dylan while driving today. I am like some kind of rapid response team for mildly pressing situations. Walking down the same sidewalk as a dog you're afraid of? Grocery store out of an easily substituted ingredient? Arrive at an airport in a different city without any form of photo ID? You know who to call.]