I was laying in bed desperately trying to ignore the fact that I wasn’t sleeping, even though my alarm clock wouldn’t go off for another 15 minutes.
My annoyance at being awake before 6:00 am was softened by the squishy comfort of finding myself in the middle of a kid burrito.
Emma was curled snugly into the crook of my left arm, her fair haired head anchored under my chin. Devin’s much longer arms and legs had enveloped the right side of me. His forehead pressed against my temple as if to suggest that we were conspiratory partners, equals above his younger and less wise sister.
I let out a groggy sigh in the darkness.
“I love you guys,” I whispered. “You know, you’re my favorites.”
Emma said nothing. Devin, always eager to affirm and encourage me, squeezed his arms tighter around his half of me. “We love you too, Mom,” he said.
I saw his hand reach past my stomach and rest on his sister’s arm.
“I love you, Emma.”
“Stop touching me.”
“Emma…” she burrowed herself deeper into my arm pit in response. I took the offending hand in my own, lacing my fingers between his. “You can hug on me, Kiddo.”
I settled back into the darkness and contemplated the relationship between my two children. I remembered a text message my own younger brother had sent me just a few days ago and how grateful I’d been for his unconditional love and support. My father-in-law’s voice echoed in the back of my cotton stuffed brain, touting the sibling relationship as one of the few constants in life. They’ll figure it out, I thought.
I closed my eyes. Five more minutes left. Surely I could capture a little more rest in five more minutes.
The pressure in my abdomen swelled. I closed my eyes tighter and pulled my children more firmly into my embrace. My bladder groaned.
Of course.
“Hey,” my voice just barely broke the silence, “you know when you really don’t want to get up, but you really have to pee, and you lay there trying to ignore the fact that you really, really have to pee and your belly starts to hurt, but you just really, really don’t want to get up and you try to just hold on and not get up to go to the bathroom for as long as you can?”
Devin’s body stiffened against mine.
“Uh, no,” he replied.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Huh.”
Emma’s tiny head stirred beneath my chin.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“What’s that, Baby?” I asked, straining to hear her mousy voice.
She nodded again. “Yes,” she said. “I do that too, Mommy.”
“It must be a girl thing,” I said.
“Right,” I felt Devin roll his eyes as he peeled his body off of mine. “I’m going to go now.” He stopped at the door and turned to look at us one more time, shaking his head – whether in disgust or confusion, I don’t know – and then went back into the light of the living room.
So, dear Internet, my question to you is…
Is this a girl thing??
Are Emma and I unique in our attempts to thwart our bladders in order to get just a tiny bit more sleep??
And also – are you asking yourself WHY you just wasted five minutes of your life reading this meandering post with absolutely NO point to it?
Yeah. Um. Sorry about that.
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Posted in Kids and Parenting - Real Mommy Blogging Tagged: annoyance, bladder, body, children, darkness, devin, emma, five more minutes, pee, sibling relationship
Hilly Reply:
September 3rd, 2009 at 10:27 am
@avitable, Haha, I was gonna say…
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