Success and failure

Tuesday night as I was trying to settle C down to sleep for the 15th time in 45 minutes the following thought popped into my head. I thought to myself "this would be so much easier if this was my kid". Oh, instant guilt! I am treating having these boys as a temporary situation but if it isn't and I get to keep them forever will my thoughts change? Will I keep remembering that I did not give birth to these boys? And, would challenges be less if I had birthed them? I think not. I think we would still have challenges on the same scale. Right now, bedtime for C is our biggest challenge. Many things have improved in the almost 2 weeks they have been with us. Bedtime has been a slow process.

We are trying to do quiet, calm things the hour or so before bed. We only do a bath every other day because of C's eczema. We get jammies on early and read a book or two. I have no trouble with D. He is so ready for bed every night. C is just a different boy, the complete opposite of his brother. He never wants to go to sleep.

Last night, Wednesday, was a huge success! It didn't start that way as the boys were fighting terribly. I thought I was going to have to check their anatomy because they were pinching and pulling each other's hair. I swore I had two little girls instead of two little boys. At 7:45 I was done with it. We put on jammies, read a story and put both boys in bed. I laid in my bed for 15 minutes or so. They were both out in 5. Wow! Parenting success! They slept straight through until 6:30 this morning. Awesome! But, every parenting success is usually coupled with a failure. In my haste to get those two crabbies to bed I forgot to fill the humidifier in their room. D woke up with blood on his pillow. Another nose bleed. Ah, well, we can try to redeem ourselves tonight!

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Tomorrow is Mom's prelim hearing. I am attending but E cannot. He is working tomorrow and unless he transports her to the courthouse he cannot go. Neither of us are comfortable with him doing the transporting of their mom so I will go alone. I'll let you guys know how she pleads but I anticipate a not-guilty plea. She has done nothing wrong in her own eyes.