IHOP

Dear little Brigitta still wakes up once a night and even when Brent's here and he's "on" he doesn't seem to hear it. I usually end up waking him up to take care of her and long after he's blissfully snoring again, I can't get back to sleep. Sometimes I find myself staring at the ceiling at 3AM desperately wishing I could just give in and doze off since sleep deprivation is my weekday reality. This morning I just couldn't, so I tried taking a bath. That didn't work. Usually Ireland crawls into bed with me at around 5:30 so I knew she'd be up soon. I told Brent I was taking her out for breakfast and slipped into Ireland's room. I rubbed her back and whispered in her ear, "Ireland, do you wanna go get some pancakes?" In seconds, Ireland went from dead asleep to grabbing her flip flops and brushing fuzzy hair out of her face.

To combat the relentless air conditioning on an unusually cool summer morning, I ordered this yummy hot chocolate

We arrived at the IHOP just minutes after it opened at 6AM. I loved having that one on one time with Ireland! Who else would squeal at the array of syrup choices? The only other people in the restaurant were some construction workers and they kindly greeted Ireland to which she responded, "I'm getting pancakes!" I casually asked how things were going with Liesel. Ireland reported that if she gets out too many toys, Liesel tells her she's being messy. I asked her if she's clean or messy and with her chocolate chip pancakes smeared all over her face and dripping onto her pajamas she immediately replied, "CLEAN!"

She wanted whatever was in the container with the purple lid poured on her pancakes.

We brought home the leftovers to a delighted Brent and Liesel and when our energy waned in the early afternoon, Ireland and I snuggled and took a nap together. Sleep, at last!