Why we needed the baby gate

These little stories pre-date the "naked at 2:00am" story and explain the necessity of imprisoning Isaac:

A few days ago, Zach and I went to bed way too late, which is kind of our tragic flaw. Just as we tucked ourselves in, Isaac woke up crying. I went in his room, he sat up in bed and cried frantically, "I have boogers in my nose! I have boogers in my nose!" I gave him a decongestant and he wanted me to lay down with him, so I stayed until he fell asleep.

Tucking myself in again, I heard more stirrings on a different monitor. Sighing (and perhaps cursing a little), I wrapped myself in my robe and went down to nurse Anders back to sleep.

By the time I got back to bed, it was about 1:30am. Anders, being sick, woke up AGAIN around 5:30, so it was a night of little sleep for this momma.

So when Izey came to wake us up at 7:30 that morning (which is late for us), you can't blame me for not happily bouncing out of bed. Zach went downstairs to shower and Spike was doing a puzzle on my bedroom floor when my eyelids involuntarily closed on me.

I woke up twenty minutes later and Spike was no where to be seen. I went downstairs to this sight: Dining room chair by the lightswitch in Anders's room, the light on. Anders standing up in his crib, looking over his railing at his big brother playing an CDs in a stereo on the floor. Isaac saw me in the doorway and happily announced over Old McDonald playing loudly, "I waked up baby Anders!"

(Perhaps this is obvious, but we do not encourage waking up baby Anders. For one thing, he needs as much sleep as he gets naturally, without being woken up. For another thing, it's much easier to get everybody ready in the morning if one of the boys (or even both of the boys--which has happened on rare occasions!) is still sleeping.)

***

The next morning, we woke up at 6:00am to the sound of a dining room chair being dragged across the hardwood floors downstairs. We knew what that meant.

As Zach rolled out of bed, he said, "Isaac is downstairs."

I was more frantic, "Get him! Before he gets to Anders's room!"

But Zach made the mistake of pausing to put his slippers on, and before he reached Spike, Spike reached Thor. The light flipped on, and Anders starting crying, and I sighed in irritation as my day started much earlier than it needed to.

I'm tired!