Barely Motivated
On the weekends, we generally let Kiera stay up late. This last weekend was no exception. Friday night, we were all in the living room, watching Live PD. I made myself stay up later than normal… and by 10:45, I was fading fast. Hey! That’s late!
My eyes kept closing as I listened to Aaron and Kiera discuss what was happening on the television. Finally, at like, 10:47, I called it a night.
During the night, I got up a couple of times with the dogs and with Kiera. At 6:30 a.m., Kiera tiptoed over to my side of the bed. I say tiptoed because I had no idea that she was in the room until she leaned over me and said, “Mom” in my ear.
“What? What is it, baby?” I asked, jerking awake.
“I can’t sleep.” She stated, rubbing her eyes.
I sat up and stumbled out of bed. “O.k. Let’s go.” I mumbled quietly, trying to avoid waking Aaron.
We went back to her room after making a pit stop at the bathroom. She climbed back in bed. “Will you stay with me?” She asked.
Not hesitating, I responded, “Scoot over.”
I climbed in beside her, pulling the covers over both of us. She rolled over on her stomach and I patted her back, hoping that she would fall back asleep for at least 30 more minutes.
It was not meant to be. After a few minutes of patting, she rolled over to face me. “I just can’t sleep.” She stated.
Sighing, I handed her the tablet so she could watch a movie, while I tried to close my eyes.
That didn’t happen either. I lay there for a few moments and finally picked up my phone and began to scroll through Facebook posts, checking to see if there were any garage sales in our area.
Aaron has had a crazy few weeks and I decided that maybe Kiera and I could go check out some garage sales and he could sleep peacefully while we were gone.
“Hey, Ki.” I said, waiting for her to pause her movie before I continued on. “Do you want to go find some garage sales with me?”
She thought about it for a moment before responding, “No. That’s ok. You go without me.”
Huh. That wasn’t how I had planned that.
“Ooookay… Are you sure you don’t want to go with me?” I asked.
“No. I think I will stay here.” She replied. “Maybe you could bring Daddy’s phone in here and call me if you see any good toys.”
Why didn’t I think of that?
“Maybe.” I said.
I lay there for a while longer, not really in a hurry to get moving since Kiera was not going with me. I figured if I lay in her room with her, the longer Aaron would get to sleep. I opened my Kindle on my phone and started to read a book.
After about 15 minutes, Kiera paused her movie and said, “Mom. If you are going to go to garage sales, you might want to go on.”
Thank you, my sweet child.
In the end, Kiera changed her mind, grabbing her wallet and Aaron woke up and declared he wanted to go with us as well.
We were tired, cold and barely motivated, but we spent the morning together laughing and having fun. I love making memories with my little family.
Rowonna McNeely works as the Communications Manager for the Brownwood Area Chamber of Commerce. She and her husband, Aaron are regular volunteers in the community, and have their hands full with their daughter, Kiera, along with three dogs and one cat.
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