This morning, at approximately 3:45 a.m., after I had been up with Fraser and Hammie (both of whom were hysterical) for about an hour, it occurred to me that in the nursery rhyme concerning the old woman who lived in a shoe it does not actually specify how many children this poor lady had. Really, it goes "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, she didn't know what to do.
She gave them some broth without any bread, Then whipped them all soundly and put them to bed." See, no numbers. So it is entirely plausible that this woman had exactly two children before she lost her mind and smacked the snot out of them.

Not that I smacked either of my children of course, nor did I even yell or cry. Mostly I just sat in the glider with a slightly bemused look on my face thinking, "It figures." The one night my dearly devoted husband is away and I have to deal with my darling children on my own is the one night Hammie decides to go totally berserk. He of course wakes up Fraser who doesn't know what the hell is going on so he starts sobbing uncontrollably and, while racing down the hallway in his pajama clad feet to find us of course slips, trips and flies head first into the door of the linen closet. Fraser's crying OF COURSE makes Hammie even more hysterical so there I was, rocking Hammie on my shoulder while Fraser sat on the nursing stool in front of me sobbing into my lap. I finally managed to get them both into bed around 4:00 and managed to pass out myself by 4:15. Ah the joys of motherhood.

Unfortunately I couldn't even let Fraser sleep in today since his speech therapist comes at 8:00, so both he and Hammie were exhausted this morning. I too am exhausted but since Andy won't be home until after 7:00 there is little chance of my squeezing in any kind of rest and relaxation today (okay, I guess this entry can qualify as my relaxation).

When I looked up the words to the old lady rhyme this morning on Wikipedia, I found another version of that wonderful old nursery rhyme too. This one is attributed to Ann Landers, and I think captures my current mindset far more accurately than the original "There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children she ran out of names to call her husband."