Adventures in Babyland -- Babies Stage Riot at 2:00 AM, Take Over House

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Two nearly seven month old babies, Zoe and Kaia, staged a full-force riot this morning at 2:00 a.m. Zoe began the riot with a shrill cry and demands for a bottle, which were quickly met. Soon thereafter, her sister and cohort, joined in with a refrain of "Ehhhhhhhh. Ehhhhhh. Ehh." Which roughly translated means, "I think want to get up. Come get me. I want to get up."

Foolishly ascribing to the theory that it is good for babies to soothe themselves back to sleep if not too upset, the mommy (that's me) let this go on just long enough that Kaia's growing refrain awakened Zoe who had been satisfied that her demands for a bottle had been quickly met with top-shelf formula and a good snuggle. But now, yes now, it was on.

Not to be outdone, just as the mommy reached to pick up rioter #2, rioter #1 chimed in again with "AAAaaaaaahhhhh. eh. Aeeaah." Which roughly translated means, "How could you pick her up and hold her and lay me down here all by myself? You're supposed to be MY mommy."

And so, this back and forth went on, for nearly three hours, with bottles, diaper changes, lullabies, rocking and even attempts to convince the babies/rioters they were sleepy by telling them they were sleepy (Perhaps a reflection upon the mommy's powers of logic and concentration at 4:30 in the morning.).

At 4:40 a.m. all hope appeared to be lost as Kaia rolled over onto her tummy in her crib, waived all four limbs in the air above her, made raspberry sounds at her sister and laughed hysterically. Finally, at 5:00 a.m., the mommy gave in, sat down, with Kaia in her crib and Zoe on her lap, and had a Diet Coke and an organic cranberry orange scone, and the babies/rioters went to sleep. Who knows what it was that soothed them. The fizzie sounds of the Diet Coke? The sweet smell of the cranberry orange scone? Some strange stress-relief hormone that is released when mommies eat sweet carb-laden foods in the wee hours of the morning?

Who knows. But all is well that ends in babies going back to sleep. Even if it takes three hours to get there. Bless their little souls. They really are sweet, even at 2:00, 3:00, 4:00 and 5:00 a.m. They are so worth every bit of effort.

Sleep well my babies. Mommy is going back to bed to prepare for tonight's adventure.