Two Thoughts Tuesday: Two in a Row?

1) I've discovered a simple, little technological joy: the sleep iPod when timer ends feature on my iPhone. It's probably the second greatest thing on my things making me happy today list falling just after Harris Teeter finally getting Boar's Head deli meats--mmmm smoked ham.

Anyway, I've found that if I drown out my inner monologue with soothing music, it's easier to go to sleep instead of staying up half of the night pondering the various benefits of paper vs. plastic. So, in my nightly preparation to enter the realm of sleep,  I'll usually set the iPod to shuffle, the timer to 35 minutes and pop those earbuds into my ears and then proceed to spend the next five minutes fluffing my pillow a few hundred times. Then somewhere around 1 or 2AM, I'll stir just enough to take the earbuds back out and toss the phone onto the floor.

But being melodically escorted into dreamland isn't really what makes this such a happy little treat for me. No, what I like is to scroll through the playlist the next morning and try to pinpoint the exact moment my brain shut down. It goes something like this: Hmmm don't remember hearing that song, or that one, or that one, wait--um no not that one either, nope, nope, ooooh yes! I do remember that one! And the one I remember? Almost always the third song that played. I guess I could probably set my timer for 10 minutes instead. But that would make my morning game end quicker, and I really need it to last through the entire 2 minutes that I brush my teeth. I must be entertained at all times you see.  Plus, trying to connect any dreams I had with the songs that played while I slept is also good for a few minutes of distraction--very Inception like. Hello Leo.



2) The children have latched onto the idea of sleepovers like little stuffed animal squeezing leeches. In an effort to maintain some rules, boundaries and sanity, we've declared Friday nights to be the one special night of the week that these pajama parties can occur.  Once that day finally arrived, they were super, duper excited about it as you can see.

Once they were down, Mama headed out to her own little girls' night pajama party at Eva's--which by the way the Starbucks dude will think you're very strange when you show up wearing loungy clothes and requesting one of every item in the pastry case. Apparently, this does not happen often. Trying to explain that you're on your way to a slumber party does not seem to help matters either. But that's neither here nor there actually. The story is that when I came home Andy told me that about an hour after he left the two of them together, Chase stomped across his sister's room, threw open the door, let loose a loud ARRGGGHHH, shut the door, then stomped himself into his room, threw himself down onto his own bed and was fast asleep within 5 minutes. Apparently, Amaya does not really share her giant bed well. Or maybe she just never shut up--she is the night owl of the family.  And that makes Chase the late night Grumpster--he really is my boy!