A Moment Of Pure Happiness - Grab Yours When You Can!
We weren't far from home, so I considered not stopping as
planned. But my younger son had been incredibly excited about spending a
night in a hotel, and was devastated to find out we might not do it.
So, we stayed.
Falling
asleep was difficult. I had planned to let the kids sleep in the huge bed while I slept on the couch. Instead, we opened up the pull-out
couch, and the sleeping arrangements changed roughly 73 times over the
course of an hour.
I was in the bed with one kid, I was on the couch
with the other. This kid was on the couch with me, then in the bed
alone. That kid was in the bed with his brother, then he was on the
couch. Musical chairs of sleeping situations.
The main bed had a couple
thin blankets. The couch had one thin, rough blanket which the
kids quite logically suggested might actually be a bath towel. Eventually we all ended up in a pile on the fold out couch along
with all of the blankets and pillows. One kid shared a pillow with me,
the other kid was sort-of between us, but mostly on top of me.
I
turned the TV to a channel with gentle music. I fell asleep. I guess the
kids did, too. I have no idea which order we nodded off, although I
think I was probably first.
Later, I woke up suddenly- I had set the
alarm for 8 am, and figured it was probably close to that time. I looked
at the clock on the nightstand across the room.
4:08
What? I looked at my phone on the desk - Yep, four am.
I
tried to fall back to sleep, but couldn't. Eventually I got up and
opened one of the black out curtains. I turned off the random lights
around the room. (There had also been a debate about if we needed a
night light, which lights should be on, etc.) I turned off the TV, too. I
realized I could climb into that big comfy bed by myself. I could take one of
the pillows and one of the blankets and have them all to myself, too. The kids would still sleep through the night, and not miss either of them.
But then I looked at the fold
out couch and saw my two beautiful boys there, asleep beside each
other--completely turned around from where their heads had been when I
fell asleep.
And I realized something. Something important. There
aren't enough chances in life to cuddle with your two sweet sons. They
were getting older faster than I had thought possible, and I knew the number of
these chances would rapidly decrease until they completely vanished.
I
climbed onto the fold-out couch-bed. I could feel the springs through
the mattress. I soon had a kid draped across my legs, and a foot on my
shoulder. One or both of the kids would shift every few minutes, often
with the jab of an angular body part into a soft part of me. I was
beginning to lose feeling in my feet because of the weight on my legs.
But
I think I had a smile as I feel asleep that time, because I was
thoroughly satisfied I had finally made a good decision by skipping the
bed and choosing the cuddles.
Labels: choices, family, happiness, joy, love, parenthood, parenting