Abi Loves Corey

Corey with Abi in "the hold" on another Family night

At 8:00 p.m. everynight, I switch from Mother to Drill Sergeant and turn into the "we must follow the schedule" enforcer. Brush teeth! Go to bed! Followed by the warning: You have to get up early!

Wednesday night we were a little later than 8 because we were trying to make up for missing Family Home Evening on Monday (due to Back to School Night). But I still tried to hurry things along cause the kids still had to be up at 6:45/7:00. We had a hard time sharing the lesson cause of constant interruptions and jumping on the bed and fighting and talking and someone still hadn't brushed their teeth and on and on - we finally finished at 10, and then Corey and I wanted to just go to bed too, Lily was screaming and didn't want to go in her bed. Corey was able to calm her down and get her to sleep, the rest of the kids were supposed to be in bed, but Mel was writing in her journal, (so proud of her diligence, but... "go to bed!") and Hyrum wanted me to try and get two tightly fit legos apart ...

"Hyrum, can't this wait till morning?!?!" I sigh as I fidget with it, finally got my nail in between the pieces.... "There! Now GO TO BED!"

Hyrum: "You're so MEAN!"

Me "Hyrum, I'm trying to help you so you're not so tired in the morning..." He imitates me and repeat what I said in a high voice as he rolls his eyes and wobbles his head. Whatever, I walk out and close the door and feeling like I hate night time!! It does not bring out the best in us.

Corey and I lay down, not in a good mood, trying to breath and relax. "So! ... how was your day?" Then a little shadow of a person comes in and goes to the foot of our bed to lay down. Abi. "Abi, go to bed."

"But I don't have my Cindewella Pillow" I ask "Where's your pillow?" Corey answers "Lily has it." Oh great. Well, unfortunately Lily's a ticking time bomb so Abi's gonna have to go without tonight.

"Abi, Lily has the pillow. You can use the other pillow."

"I don't want to use Wesley's pillow! I want my Cindewella Pillow!"

"It doesn't matter - go to bed" (We have zero listening skills in the p.m.)

This happened several times. She would sneek into our room again to try to sleep on the little bench at the foot of our bed. We'd tell her she has to sleep in her own room. She'd whine about her pillow with the wrong cartoon character on it. Corey said "You can come and sleep in my room in the morning after the kids go to school..." which touches on another sensitive topic for this little 3 year old "...but I DON'T HAVE A SCHOOL!"

"Abi, GO TO BED!"

"Waaahh!!!" and the crying insues again as we take her to her room and close the door. We lay down again and try to calm our nerves.

Once again, a little shadow walks into the room very quietly. She pauses and chooses her words very carefully as she faces our bed.

Another pause, then a sweet little voice breaks the silence...

"I hate you Dad..." and walks out.

I turn and look at Corey... "Did she just say "I hate you"? Corey stands up and smiles as he goes to talk to this little one and I start totally laughing. The kids had been watching Church videos and commercials on Sunday and the one comes to my mind of the dad who keeps being called into his daughter's room to get her a drink of water, a blanket, her doll, on and on, then she calls again, the Dad goes in and says, 'Now what do you want?' And she said, "Dad, I love you." That's what's supposed to happen, but we're not that family yet. ;) Well, there was only one kid in that commercial, maybe that has something to do with it. Someday I hope we can make it to that level of happy living.

On the ride to take Wes to school the next day Abi told me she loved me, and I asked her "Do you love Daddy?"

"Yes!"

"Last night did you say 'I hate you Dad'?"

"No!" She denied it. That's good I guess. I hope they have selective memory when they're adults about what happened during their childhood - maybe we can be that family in the commercial after all, if only in false memories. :)