Trials and Tribulations, Tuesdays and Thursdays

I was supposed to be watching Game Seven of the NBA Finals right now, but Dwyane Wade had to go and wreck those plans. So it's back to blogging.

I've been neglecting the blog a little bit since the infamous Reader's Poll, but now that the basketball season is over and my daughter is becoming pretty much just a regular baby like any other, I will have to start thinking of stuff to say again. Or come up with better excuses.

So, don't you wish Bush watched more public television? Seriously. If this article is any indication, all of his policy may be based just on TV shows. Perhaps he really isn't the worst leader in the history of the USA; perhaps he's just been watching the wrong channels. Let's hope the improvement continues.

But back to me. I'm alone with the kids again tonight...Michelle is teaching Tuesday and Thursday nights during the summer. She really loves her class, by the way. I'll have to get her to tell you about it sometime. But as I was saying, I'm on my own as far as getting them to bed on these two nights of the week. It'll be interesting. (At least that's what I'm telling myself, because I can't think of anything better to write about.)

Toby's bedtime is 8 if he takes a nap and 7 if he doesn't. He took a nap today, which is becoming a rare occurrence, kind of like a Republican President defacing the flag or something. Man, I'm on a roll tonight.

Until recently, Alicia stayed up late. We thought she was a night owl like her mama, and Toby the early riser like Dad. But we found when we tried to get her to sleep, she would scream and cry and be generally disagreeable for up to an hour and a half before she conked out. So we're taking the approach of trying to get her down by 7 or 8 as well. She still screams and cries about it, but at least when she's done it's not the middle of the night.

The scene: Two nights ago. The first night of summer school; Michelle leaves at 5:30 and wishes me luck. Toby was napless, so he should go to bed at 7, even 6:30 judging by his behavior. Alicia is usually in a good mood until about that time, so I'm hoping I can get Toby in bed before she turns on the sirens. No such luck. At 6:15 she's already getting cranky. So I set Toby in front of Dad's Best Friend and head upstairs to try my luck at getting her to fall asleep.

I'll make the long story short...she wouldn't go to sleep. At 7:30 I was at the end of my rope and Toby was at the end of our computer animated collection. I left Alicia crying in her crib and went through the abbreviated version of Toby's good-night routine. Once he was happily tucked in, I headed back to our room to comfort Alicia.

She stopped crying just as I was halfway between Toby's door and ours.

Breathing a tentative sigh of relief (there is such a thing, as any parent can tell you), I went in to check on her. She seemed comfortable (as opposed to un-comfortable, I suppose, which was what she had been earlier), so I thanked her and went downstairs to watch the Miami Heat wrap up their title. Oh, and by the way...Shaq's averages for the Finals:

13.7 points, 10.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 0.8 blocks, 3.2 turnovers.

In other words, Dwyane Wade would have won himself this title with Michael Olowokandi playing center.

But back to my increasingly boring story. Fast forward to tonight. Naturally I bid Michelle farewell with a twinge of dread. But Toby took his nap today, and Alicia was much nicer to me. She was asleep by 7:15 with no more than the expected amount of fussing, and I got some fun time with my son before it was bedtime. Now I've even written a blog post, and I get to relax a little before my wife comes home to a happy, quiet house.

I think I could do this twice a week.