It’s 11:51 pm and I have been trying to get my ideas to stop dancing around in my mind. I’m also trying to convince my one year old son to stop dancing around on the bed and go back to sleep! My thoughts are bouncing between river dancing and doing the cupid shuffle. Fragments of stories are teasing me and the pages are still blank. So what is a mother to do?

Thankfully my 2 3/4 year old is sound asleep, unaware of her brother’s antics at this late hour. I am curious how you other writers with children handle disruptions and uncooperative-ness? I am sure there is something I am missing. A technique to get my son to stay sleep? Some have suggested cough syrup but that sounds medieval. I have heard tales of creeping into another room in the wee hours of the morning. Feasible, except for the lack of another room to creep into to. I have even heard of the old work whilst the little darlings nap in the afternoon. HAH! I’ve been trying that one and the joke is on me. My children take turns NOT napping.

As I type this my son is in his crib shaking the sides (squeak, squeak, squeak, squeak) as if to protest his confinement at this hour. Surprisingly as I am committing this to print the squeak, squeak has slowed. In my peripheral vision my son is watching me intently, even though I know he is tired beyond belief. I figured the bedtime stories I read to him and his sister before bed were sufficient. Oops! I typed too soon. His cries are going to wake up the whole neighborhood. *Sigh* A mother’s job is not ever done.