My two younger children have decided that they are going to do a reprisal of the toddler years with regards to avoidance of going to bed, and have recently begun doing all that they can to postpone the actual event of going to bed itself, let alone actually falling asleep. They like to whip out all of the classics, such as I need a drink of water or to go to the bathroom, as well as some creative new ones such as I just realized at the exact moment I am supposed to get into bed that I may have potentially possibly broken my pinkie toe earlier this week and it now needs immediate medical attention (Alexis) or I just realized that I don't have every single stuffed animal in my room on my bed and we must bust out a search party for said missing stuffed animal and tear apart my whole room RIGHT NOW (Charlie.) They have also taken to begging me to lie down with them for a while, and since I'm pretty much a sucker for them I will do this as long as it does not involve TOO long of a conversation on their part to avoid going to sleep.
I might be a fucking sucker for those girls, but I'm not a dumb sucker. I KNOW their sudden desire for Mama cuddles has nothing to do with the actual cuddling itself and more to do with getting an extra 3-5 minutes of awake time so they can see...what? What their father and I do in the mysterious hours between 8:30-9 PM and 7-8 AM?
It's a whole lotta not-exciting, that's what. It usually involves some sort of lunch packing, cleaning, and prepping for the next day. The excitement comes when we are able to eat or drink whatever crap we want without having to inhale it so the children don't see us making poor food choices and therefore irreversibly scarring them for life with food issues. I also will get on the laptop at that time uninterrupted to binge on the news online, Facebook, and to pin things that I will likely never make/do, and Charles will go watch shit on the iPad because I am a bad wife and can't/won't watch TV or movies with him. We are ANIMALS, I tell you. Don't be jealous.
Today's conversation with Charlie, though, takes the cake. She started off by asking if they could get a mini fridge for the upstairs. She tried to sell me on the idea by saying "We won't keep pop in it. Maybe cheese sticks. Or stuff you keep in the fridge downstairs. Like healthy stuff." Uh, OK, playa.
She then also asked for a "small kitchen area" for their bedrooms as well. Apparently the new thing for kindergardeners is to have your own apartment. Nothing like starting independent living fresh outta preschool, amirite?
So I'm lying next to her in bed, grateful for the dark to hide my silent laughing, when she then makes her last request.
She wants a fucking underground bunker.
I shit you not.
She wants it to be equipped with a kitchen, bathroom, bed, and a lot of pajamas. Plus there needs to be an underground tunnel going from her current bedroom (which is upstairs, so not quite sure how that will work, but I guess all the details have not been hammered out yet...) to the bunker. For what, I'm not sure. Is this going to be like a situation room for when her attempts at world domination fail? Is she privy to some intelligence regarding nuclear warfare that I am not? Or perhaps she is just terrified of the idea of a Trump Presidency during her grade school years and is just planning accordingly?
I'm trying to avoid thinking that perhaps it is to hide bodies. I mean, I am pretty sure there's NOT a body count yet so this is what we are working to maintain here. But perhaps she is just trying to be proactive here. A preemptive plan for hiding bodies and fugitives, if you will. Contingencies.
I am not sure if I should be slightly terrified of that idea, or proud as hell of her foresight and planning and organizational skills. With the added bonus, of course, of putting off falling asleep for another six and a half minutes.
