When will it end?

Last night I got to bed about 11 since Zane had a late soccer game and I had to give him a play-by-play of the RSL game when he got home. (That's Real Salt Lake, the soccer team. They're in the CONCACAF championships, and just advanced to the final round, the first US team to ever do so. In other words, we are awesome.) At 12:30, Sasha woke up. At 1:30, Sabrina appeared in my bed and took a lot of doing to get back to sleep. In fact, she finally agreed to let go of my hand when I suggested she sleep on the floor in my room instead of in her bed. At 3, Sasha was up again. And also at 6:30. Today, I was not very happy.

I was talking to my sil Victoria this afternoon about the problems our kids will or might face, like bullies and sexual abuse and gangs in schools and teachers who don't like them and difficulties with grades...and I wondered, are these the good ol' days? The days I don't get enough sleep because the kids are home, instead of the days I won't get enough sleep because I'm waiting for them to come home?

Sometimes people say they wish they could be a baby again since all they do is eat and sleep, or a kid because they don't have to worry about earning a living, or whatever. (Of course, no one ever wants to be a teenager again, unless they peaked too early and their best days were in high school. Those are some sad specimens.) The problem, of course, is that babies don't really have it any easier than the rest of us. Sasha has only been breathing, pooping, and seeing things for six months. That's a lot of work if you've never done it before! We are all faced with developmentally appropriate challenges, which means that once we've mastered pooping or fractions or whatever we don't think they are real challenges anymore. But they are, to the people who are only just now getting to them.

How does this all tie together? Well, the grass is always greener, for one thing. Right now I long for the days of worrying if Sabrina gets a 1590 on the SAT. But when she and Sasha and possibly other future babies are teenagers, I may think I never had it so good as when I had only two kids who were both safely in their crib/Dora bedtent at night. Also, I think both kids and parents go through development together. I guess right now I just have to deal with the developmental stages of my kids, and try to enjoy them as best I can. Even on what feels like 90 nonconsecutive minutes of sleep.