Another Possibility

I just thought of another possible reason for my lack of sleep and irritability. I've been taking some cough medicine at night as well. It's a new one that I decided to try. I had stopped taking it as I got better with my allergies. Then when my allergies seem to start over again, I started to take it again, but only a half a dose. I'm thinking this could have been what kept me up as well.

Hmmmm.... Perhaps this means coffee is not the culprit! :).

Either way, I will stay off the coffee for the rest of the week or until I get back to normal with my energy. I'm still coughing but nothing severe. Just that occasional cough as residual from the big one.

I did sleep better last night. Took a while to get to sleep, a bit restless. It was kind of warm last night so I opened both windows for some air and to hear the highway out back. I feel better today. Hopefully, the next few nights will provide better, solid sleep. Tonight and friday night I have late night kids til 10:30pm.

I've developed a system wherein I get the kids prepared for the night earlier i.e. dinner, beds, movies, feed the baby and put him in his pj's, get his bottle ready for later, even eat dinner earlier myself and have the kitchen cleaned. That way, by the time the last daycare kids leaves at 6:30 pm, the night kids just get time to play for bout an hour then they lay down with movies. At that time, I put on my pj's, brush my teeth, and relax until parents arrive to pick up their kids.

Relationship Drama

A friend of mine just came over for a bit this morning to talk about her frustration with her husband. He is being a bit mean and unwilling to help out in the household. They have their grandson while their daughter serves in Iraq. It seems her husband's expectations for their 7 year old grandson are a bit too high. He wants to "beat" him for the mishaps he does. She feels their grandson is doing some of the mishaps to gain his grandfather's attention. Very sad situation.

Grandpa was raised that a man doesn't show his feelings, the he sucks it up. He is trying to instill this same value in his 7 year old grandson. Not good. She is doing her best to show him contrary. Her grandson spends some of his time here at my house. He likes to talk and ask questions. I try to explain things to him and let him know, without talking bout his grandpa, how life works, how people are different, how people deal with things differently, just to give him some other perspectives.

It's rather sad because his face is so expressive. When he is sad, he tries so hard to be a big boy. Rather than complain, he gets really quiet. It's a very obvious difference in his behavior. When you ask him, "What's wrong?", he shrugs his shoulders and says, "Oh nothing. I'm fine."

If you don't have an idea of what is bothering him, it's hard to help him.