Oh, what a not-so-beautiful mornin'!

Vivian has been a bit of a challenge lately. She's flexing her two-year old muscles and taking us on a great ride. Absolutely everything is about her, you know. We even get the pleasure of living in "Vivian's house."

She also has this thing about fighting sleep (which Curt says comes from me . . . but whatever.) Last night we got the girls tucked in a little later than usual but not ungodly late so we were cool. We sat down on the couch with our DVR and I was very surprised to hear Vivian's door open about an hour later. Actually, Curt heard it, I was in disbelief. She was still very much awake.

I tried soothing her to sleep but to no avail. Finally, I grabbed her blanket and brought her down to the couch. She can watch "Survivor" with us. (Yes, we're one of the few people in the world that still watch that show.)

She was still wide awake when the show was over around 11:00. I decided to go to bed with her until she fell asleep. I used to do that with Audrey all of the time at that age. Alas, Audrey is a MUCH different sleeper. She can fall asleep in the middle of a loud dance floor, I swear.

So, an hour later (it's midnight now) I finally emerge from Vivian's room successful. Whew. I'm tired and promptly go to bed with Curt (who managed to pry himself from the couch.)

I have no idea what time it was but I'm guessing it was 2 or 3 am when I hear wailing coming from Viv's room. She's been having lots of nightmares lately. Audrey did the same thing at this age. I guess their minds are working so hard and so fast all day long that it just explodes on them in their dreams. Once again, Vivian is dreaming about the Blue Boohbah. It's a recurring dream. Audrey used to dream about bees.

Vivian wanted "to go downstairs." Nope. We're sleeping. I choose to lie down with her (again) to try to soothe her back to sleep.

Vivian is a TERRIBLE co-sleeper! I hate sleeping with her, actually. She pokes and pinches and hugs and pulls my hair . . . whatever. She thinks it's a big game. I feel so sorry for her future husband. Even Audrey hates sleeping in the same room with her.

She sneezed and I had to get up to blow her nose. She sneezed again. I'm up again. I put Saline drops in her nose. "Where's my water?" "No, the blanket goes THIS way." "We're sleeping, mommy." (Excuse me? Uh. No. We're not.) Poke, poke, "I love you mommy." And so it continues.

I finally scuffle back to my bedroom at 5:00 am. My alarm is due to go off in 30 minutes for my work out. "F__ that" I say to myself and turn it off. I flop into bed (but not too hard cuz I have to be careful not to wake Curt up. It's true.)

I don't know what time it is but perhaps an hour goes by when Viv is wailing again. This time Curt gets up. I discover later that he never heard the earlier event. He had no idea that I was gone for hours last night. He actually made a joke about me not working out. ACK!!

All of this makes for a very grumpy Mommy this morning. I apologized to Audrey when I dropped her off at school. Her response, "Why were you so grumpy?" Was it that obvious? I texted Curt and apologized to him.

Vivian is damn lucky she's so cute.