The Trillwing household: Party Central

Friday, 8 p.m.: Lucas tells me, uncharacteristically early, that he wants to "take a nap"--meaning go to bed for the night. I'm very excited about this because it means I'll have a couple of hours to myself to clean up this filthy house before I have some people over the next day, and still get to bed early! (Mr. Trillwing had gone to sleep earlier, as is his wont.)

So I pick out the requisite number of books Lucas demands I read (two, which sometimes climbs as high as seven, depending on his alertness), and we breeze through them, Lucas actually paying attention to them instead of jumping up and down next to me on his bed, which is what he has done every other night this week.

I'm thinking this is golden. I turn on the nightlight and the fan we use for white noise in his room and turn out the main light. Then I climb into bed with him for his pre-sleep cuddle ritual, in which he likes to suck his left thumb and pinch the extra skin on my elbow with his right hand. Typically, after about 5 minutes of this, he'll turn over and start to fall asleep. At which point I get up, stumble over the big dog stretched out on the floor right alongside the bed, nudge the dog out of the room, tell Lucas "sweet dreams" and I love him, and then close the door.

Except last night, something went awry, and the next thing I know, I'm waking up in Lucas's room because the dog is licking my face. And it's 10:30.

I'm just thankful Mr. Trillwing didn't wake up earlier so he could photograph the three of us--Lucas, the dog, and me--in the midst of our early-evening snooze-a-thon. Because that definitely would have showed up on his blog.