Aaaaahhhhh!!!!

I realize that screaming on a blog title is probably way out of line and could be handled a lot differently. But it's my bloggy and I'll scream if I want to. (In case you missed it, that was a play on the old song 'It's my party and I'll cry if I want to'.) Some people scream into a pillow. I scream into my blog title. And seeing as how I am not actually physically screaming at the moment then it's really just the same thing only a different way of muffling the sound. Anyhow, let's put the joking aside shall we? Why would I be screaming right about now? The correct answer is: Bedtime. To some people, bedtime for their kids is a time to kick back, relax, and take some quiet stree-free time to yourself. For me, it's a time to scream inside my head. If my brain had ears, it would be deaf. Alex and Abby are not great at the whole 'go to bed' thing. It doesn't matter how long you keep them awake or how hard you run them throughout the day. Nothing works. I read a nice quiet book, tell them a story in their beds, tuck them in and kiss them goodnight all in the hopes of having two very relaxed kiddos yawning and eager for much needed sleep. My kids? Yeah. That doesn't seem to work. Bedtime is at 8:30. The time that they finally fall asleep is on average of 9:30 but can near the 11:00 mark a good many nights. I'd like to blame this on sugar, but they didn't have any today. I'd love to blame this on over-stimulation but it's winter and that definitely isn't the problem. So I guess I'll just assume that my kids don't need the required amount of sleep necessary for two kids their age. I'm fairly certain that I lose my sanity somewhere between the jumping out of bed and running a amok through their rooms and the choruses of 'Mama, I'm not tired!' and 'Mama, I'm need a drink of water!' I try to ignore it by taking a shower, but 97.6% of the time, my shower is interrupted by one of them opening the door to ask me the inevitable question, 'Mama, are you taking a shower?' Which, this of course is answered by me screaming, 'Yes! Now get back in bed or you're gonna be in trouble!" Naturally, this threat is taken quite lightly as they are fully aware that chances are slim that I will instantly jump out of my shower and fulfill said threat. Alex's bed is one inch (literally) away from the bathroom door so you can see my dilemma here. The genius that designed the Hollywood bathroom obviously didn't have children. *sigh* I suppose that this is the way my evenings will continue for now. I think I'm gonna have to buy a pillow specifically designated for screaming into. It might be a tad more effective than a virtual scream.