(he can make) the best of times, the worst of times

My birthday did not start off well.  I stayed up far too late, giving myself a birthday present by indulging in Netflix episodes of Dr. Who in bed.  A mere 2 hours after turning in, Elias crawled into bed with me.  Normally I'd just roll over and return to sleep, but, no, he was wet through his nighttime pull-ups, so I had to get up and force him to go potty and change his clothes before stumbling back into bed.  But Elias wouldn't just go back to sleep; he was all squirmy and wanted to chat.  Forbidding movement and sound lasted about a second, then Elias'd say "NO squirming, NO talking when Mommy is trying to sleep!" recited dutifully and with feeling, with no hint of irony.  Ughh.   Then he got up, went to his room, and returned to my bed with books which he proceeded to "read" to me, begining or ending most sentences with "mommy":  MOMMY!  Pooh had too many honeypots, Mommy, so he decided to give some old honeypots away, Mommy, to make room for the new ones--right, Mommy?" One can not sleep through that.  Then I said if he wanted to read he'd have to do it in his bed.  So, whining and unwilling but obedient he took his books and climbed into his bed, where he proceded to set up shop and start the Pooh book all over again, this time shouting the narrative to be sure I could hear it.  I tried really hard to ignore it, but although I couldn't quite awake to functional consciousness, neither could I truely fall asleep.  Every 10 minutes or so he'd try to come back in "for just a little snuggles" but couldn't restrain himself so was soon kicked out again.  A couple times he was banned from my room altogether, resulting in loud, disolant crying, which I also, unsuccessfully, tried to sleep though.  I tried bribing him with my iPod (AKA "the game") but for maybe the first time ever he was uninterested.  After a couple hours of this, continuous, PBSkids came on TV so I tried that.  This decreased the periodicity and amplitude of the interuptions yet stayed above my sleep threshhold.  The broadcast kept freezing, which would drive Elias back to my bed to plead that I fix it.  By the time I got him to daycare I was absolutely beat.  Then I got to go to work, where I discovered I'd left his naptime gear in the car.  When I opened my email I found a message from a recruiter who reported she heard through the grapevine that my position would be opening and wanted me to view a candidate's CV--which was very good, to boot.  I did not pass it on.  A coworker confirmed the CEO is constantly singing my praises so I chalked it up to a mistake, but it still rattled me.  People at work did treat me to a very nice lunch...but it ended up making me feel very sick until late evening.

Yet, the day ended well.  I found a birthday gift from my parents on the front porch.  Elias and I watched The Polar Express, curled up together on the couch while he let me type on the computer with only a few lobbying attempts for sesamestreet.org.  He didn't put up much of a fuss for bedtime.  I read some books to him, he reciting many of the passages, and even reading a word from the background illustrations.  He arranged stuffed Pooh and "Puppy" beside him so they could read the books along with him.  He talked about his many friends at school (something I can rarely coax him to do).  Finally, after the alloted 3 books were done he requested a song, "Amazing Grace" and we sang it together.  He's fond of that as a bedtime song mostly because it's long, I think, but it still warms my heart to hear him sing hymns!  What could be more endearing?

I'll have to keep that memory alive, come 4:30am tomorrow morning.