Insomniac Coffee
Tonight, Gabriel was determined not to go to sleep. Hannah was too, for awhile. I stayed clear of her room (Dad = playtime & instant tears when he leaves the room), trying to give her some time to settle into sleep. She finally gave in around 9:30pm.
"Gabriel, you want to watch W.I.T.C.H. with me?" I asked him in one of his many visits to the family room to see how I was doing.
"Yeah, sure. I need to go tell Mommy." He raced off excitedly, shouting to Mom (in close proximity to Hannah's room), "Daddy said I could watch W.I.T.C.H. with him tonight! Isn't that cool?"
My objectives for asking him to watch tv with me were to 1) get a little time with Gabriel myself (been a little light on time with both kids this week), 2) acknowledge the FACT that forcing him to fall asleep was a physical impossibility, 3) keep him out of Hannah's earshot while she was sleeping.
Two out of three isn't bad, I guess. He drifted back to the family room, and we watched the animated W.I.T.C.H. episode together, fast-forwarding through commercials that he was oh-so-familiar with. The show ended, and I sent Gabriel back to bed.
10:20 pm - he was still popping around his room, externalizing his conversation & play. Not tired at all.
That's okay. I needed to go out anyway.
"Gabriel, I'm going out to get a coffee. Want to go?"
"Yeah, sure!"
So Gabriel and I ventured out to Insomniac Coffee. We chatted in the car and ordered our drinks once inside. Gabriel: strictly a milk and cookies kind of guy. Me: tripple real carmel latte. Gabriel's milk didn't last long. He inaugurated their brand new real wood floor with a splash of milk and a scattering of straws. One of the owners graciously cleaned up our mess while I relayed paper towel to him.
Gabriel got his I'm-sorry-and-embarassed-about-to-cry face on. I let him know it was okay, and we ordered another milk (which I carried back to the table for him). We enjoyed our drinks and talked some more about how his week had gone. Finished, we headed back to the car & home.... where I can still hear him playing and chatting with himself at 11:45pm. Well, at least Hannah and Janette are still sleeping. For now, anyway.
-- Dad
