the devil made me do it
in the past month and a half, i have been living with a dog. this
is not referencing thomas. although, the dog is clearly his. she
likes to get up in the morning. she likes to go to bed late. she
poots. she howls. she sniffles. clearly the resemblance is striking.
but our dog has multiple personalities. one of which is sweet and endearing. although some might consider the wet nose in the armpit adorable, it bugs me. she loves to be loved, plays with her duck while lying on her back, the list goes on.
but it is the devil dog that i have a hard time with. i don't mind the devil dog during the day. well. i am not there to contend with the devil that lives in her nor does it interfere with my sleep. the last statement being of the utmost importance. if you don't know why, take a look at the title of the page.
roxie is terrified of thunderstorms and is hard to contend with. and the thing about living in the south is that those storms tend to come when i choose to sleep. and then she wakes me up.
this has brought me to the conclusion that i may not be able to have children. at least ones that are prone to waking up in the wee hours of the night and/or ones that do not require much sleep. i can handle the smells, the crying, the pooping, the spit-up, the kicks, the all-consuming mommy-hood. but the lack of sleep. well. i don't do so hot with that.
case in point. the other morning. BAM. thunder then lightening and i am pinned down by a dog who is terrified. i try to calm her down which leads to a lot of her knocking me over and trying to push me around (where i don't know). i am end up breaking down. literally. imagine a grown woman, sitting in the middle of the bed, yelling at the dog "for christ's sake!" and crying at the same time. this from a woman who had had 8 hours of sleep. in a row. not deprived. not at all.
needless to say, she did finally calm down. once she threw herself in the closet (her choice) and buried her face (her choice as well). who knew that a dog would drive me to such insanity? who knew that i could handle everything else but this one element? (thomas). who knew that sleep was such an important factor in my life? (that last question was rhetorical. yes. it is. i know that sleep is important to me because it is always one of my highest priorities. somewhere around coffee, chocolate and diamonds.)
My kids came to me, scared, in the night a few times. I just gathered them close to me, pulled the duvet over us, and held them as we went back to sleep. It's easier than a terrified dog, I think. :)