Too tired for bed

Have you ever been too tired to go to bed? Yes, I know that on the surface it doesn't make sense, but if you're a mom, you probably understand what I'm talking about. "Go to bed" is not just a matter of walking into your room, lying down in the bed, and going to sleep. There's a routine. There are SO many things you have to do before you can actually lie down in the bed and go to sleep.

Here are all the things I have to do before I can actually GO to bed:

1. Stand up
2. Oh wait. Stand up without waking up the baby. (Usually, fail. So, put baby back to sleep, and repeat step 1.)
3. Tiptoe into room without stepping on/tripping over dinosaurs, legos, dolls, plastic teacups, trains, train tracks...(you get the picture) and waking up other child.
4. Let down side of crib. With one hand. Without waking baby.
5. Lay baby down in her crib - you guessed it, without waking her. Fail. Repeat steps 1 and 2.
6. Tiptoe out of room and go back to living room. Turn off tv, lights, and other random electronic devices that have been left on.
7. Put away food that's still sitting out. Hide junk food that Daddy and I were eating so kids don't find it the next morning. Lock cupboard door.
8. Lay out clothes for my husband. Someplace obvious because we all know he's legally blind when it comes to finding stuff.
9. Go to bathroom. Brush teeth, wash face, remove eye makeup (wait, I put on makeup EVERY DAY? Ha! Nope. It's probably still there from yesterday. Or last weekend. Oh huh, only half of those dark circles are actually sleep deprivation. Who knew?)
10. Enjoy the fact that this is the ONLY time of day you actually get to be alone in the bathroom. Possibly read a few pages of my book. Get too absorbed and finish the whole thing. DANG it! Now it's 3 am. sigh.
11. Tiptoe into the kids' rooms and check on them again. Probably trip over aforementioned toys. Wonder how they can possibly look so young and angelic while they're sleeping. Cry a little over the fact that they will be grown up way too soon.
12. Get a glass of water. Drink some and realize you have to go to the bathroom again.
13. Fall into bed and stare at the clock, realizing you have to be up way too soon and wondering why you stayed up way too late, AGAIN.
14. Lie in bed and try to fall asleep, try to stop thinking about all the things you didn't do that day, try not to worry about all the things that will happen tomorrow that you can't control.
15. Be incredibly thankful for your life. At some point realize that you actually were asleep but now the baby's awake and you have to go get her. Stumble into the other room. Avoiding toys is second nature at this point.
16. Drift back off to sleep cuddling warm chubby baby.

See why going to bed is so much work? If I could skip straight from step 1 to step 16, I would go to bed way sooner. Instead I will just sit on the couch and waste time on the computer...typing on my blog....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

Goodnight, everyone.