What's up with the sleeping?

Last night, Kevin and I went to see Chicago at the CAC. We have been out alone all of like 5 times since 2004 and I was really looking forward to it. I absolutely LOVE musicals...I know, I know, there's something weird about them and the way the singing and dancing are just interspersed into normal life, but those of you who have known me since I was a child know that I have always preferred singing and dancing to normal behavior. So, musicals suit me just fine.

Before the music begins, as I sit there in the dark with all the excitement mounting...the musicians warming up, the audience chattering, the ushers...ushering?, I start to think maybe I could've been a famous broadway star if only I could've gotten up the gumption to sing in front of people before I turned 30! I can dream.

So, last night, the curtain opens, the actors take their places, the musicians begin playing and the show starts. A smile spreads across my face and I am just so happy to be out of my house doing an adult activity. Approximately 45 seconds into the show, I look with glee over at my husband to see his reaction to the racy costumes and the scandalous humor and what do I see? He's asleep.

This leads me to my questions of this post: why won't my sons sleep? My husband is clearly a great sleeper, and while I admit that I'm not a particularly sound sleeper, couldn't my boys have gotten a little bit of their sleep genes from their father?

Danny used to sleep all night, no problem, but recently (last month or so) has begun waking up every night, coming into my room and announcing to me in a real nonchalant voice that he can't sleep. Then, I walk him back to his room, tuck him in, turn on his little birdie machine and threaten him with, "Get out of this bed again and you will not play your computer game tomorrow!" Nice. Good mothering. Honestly, if I don't threaten him though, he will come and stand in my room for an hour. Stand, not actually fall asleep on the floor or something. Just stand there, staring and occasionally tapping me.

Ben is a whole other problem. He is up at least twice every night. I have tried everything from nursing him/not nursing him, picking him up/not picking him up, just patting his back till he falls back asleep, teaching him to fall asleep on his own, letting him cry when he wakes up (we did that for over a month--everyone was miserable and sleep deprived and it made absolutely no difference in his sleep), you name it...we've tried it. So now, I just accept it and give him a bottle in the middle of the night. And, with every drop of milk or formula that flows down his throat, I think...that's one drop closer to him graduating from college.

I know I shouldn't wish my life away and I certainly know how fast children grow up, but it's really hard not to wish for the night they'll both sleep ALL NIGHT and I can become a functioning human being again. Seriously, the bags under my eyes are becoming a problem...I need some serious under-eye concealor.

I close with this: I see so many of the wonderful things about Kevin in our children and hopefully they have some of my good qualities too. Why did they have to get some of our not so good personality traits as well? Is this that curse parents put on their children coming to fruition..."I hope someday you will have children who act just like you do"? Did I miss out on some sort of class or handbook that parents of good sleepers knew about and I didn't? These questions remain unanswered.