I want to sleep like a baby

I'll never figure out how an eight pound cat can make as much noise as ours does. I have a sound machine that blocks out most of her nighttime antics, but she has learned both the limits of the machine, and which noises I will find worth investigating. Last night I was snatched from a fitful, semi-sleep-like state by a small army of elves in the living room. As I stumbled out of the bedroom, the noises died down. By the time I arrived on the scene, a jiggle ball jingled one last time as it came to a stop. The cat, Oreos, let out a sweet little meow and took a halfhearted swipe at the pile of balls with bells inside of them. I wasn't buying it and I'm sure she had been juggling them all before I showed up.

"These are daytime toys," I explained.

She sprang up and galloped into my bedroom. I waited for the door to slam and cursed my Fred Flintstonesque foolishness. Of course this didn't happen, and soon I heard the tell tale signs of the litter box ritual. As a new addition to the ritual, a shirt that I left on the bathroom floor was recruited to help hide the urine...my fault. Fortunately the smell washes out easily.

I turned to head back to bed just as Oreos wound her way between my legs and flopped onto her back for full belly exposure. I was awake, and it only seemed reasonable to her that petting was sure to follow.

"It's 1:30 in the morning," I explained.

She rolled and twisted her way to my foot and playfully grabbed it. I smiled as I bent to pick her up. No wonder I was lacking as a parent, I can't even draw lines with a cat that she can't figure out how to erase. Her purring and cuddling reminds me that with all my faults the one thing I do have is an abundance of Love. I turned back to the bed with Oreos in my arms, and there was the dog, Hershey, standing and wagging her tail.

"It's 1:35 in the morning Hershey," I explained.

She hopped out of her bed, which also happens to be my bed, and headed for the back door.

" !Oh mi dios!" I said.

Ten minutes later, after topping off the water bowl, explaining why it wasn't time for breakfast yet, and making sure that Oreos understood the distinction between day and night toys, I slipped back into my corner of the bed.

I was nearly asleep when I thought of my son and his current roommate saga. He worked for a year after high school and was just now going to college. His roommates may not be able to make rent, and since I had talked him out of working full time, and into going back to school, I wondered where I would fit in to the equation...as long as it finished "+ dad = success," I don't really care.

The cat purred, the dog snored, my wife enjoyed her usual deep slumber, and somewhere along the way I was able to find my restless sleep-like state.