Eyes Wide Shut

"Mommy, Daddy, is it morning yet?" Ailyn asked, standing at the foot of our bed at 2:30 am. 

"No, sweetie – it's many hours until morning and we need to get good sleep until then. Can you go back to bed?"

"No, I don't want to go in there alone."

"Sweetie, your brother is in there – you won't be alone."

"I don't want to be in there with him, can I sleep with you?"

So Ailyn crawled into bed and in a lucky twist of fate, while Emily was up using the bathroom, I grabbed Ailyn and brought her over to my side of the bed – both enjoying cuddling her and thinking I was doing Emily a favor of giving her more space in bed.

A few minutes later, the cycle repeated with Sennen, who then slid into bed next to Emily. Only Sennen is a very wiggly sleeper and when he can't fall asleep, he moves even more. Not surprisingly, Emily became annoyed and decided to go to the kids' king sized bed in the adjoining room with Sennen. Both parties in both beds fell back to sleep. 

Emily and I often divide and conquer. Sometimes, you know going in which kid will be challenging – or in some instances,  more challenging than the other. But sometimes, fate deals one of us a better hand than the other and today I got the better hand. While Ailyn slept soundly past 8 am and almost needed waking, Sennen's eyes popped open at 5 am and he was ready to get going for the day. Emily did her best to keep him quiet in bed so she could sleep more, but he would not be quieted – his mind was active and wanting to go. Eventually – and with great frustration – gave up at 6am and went downstairs with him. From there, things got better for them as they explored the hotel, walked on the beach, played on the beachside workout equipment, had an early breakfast and hung out with Susan and Jack when they came downstairs for breakfast. Despite her fatigue, Emily's annoyance gave way to warmth as she and Sennen spent time together.

But a 5 am start to the day had its consequences. Sennen was not his best self most of the day and we had challenges with listening and appropriate behavior throughout the day. And a day at the swimming pool and beach would take its toll on a well rested day. But fatigue really caught up to Sennen at about 4pm when he wanted to lay down and sleep. We had dinner reservations for 6 pm and needed to keep him awake – which we did by. letting him watch a TV show on his new iPad and through the company of his cousins. Walking to dinner, he looked tired and he let us know that as soon as dinner was over, he wanted to go to sleep.

One of the recurring items in my mother's pantheon of Eric stories is the time I fell fell down, asleep walking out of a restaurant at about four years-old. I told Sennen that story as we entered the Italian restaurant down the street to get a smile out of him, not knowing it would be prescient. The small restaurant was incredibly slow preparing our food and during the 45 minutes we waited, Sennen became sad and then distraught that it was taking so long – partly because he was hungry, but mainly because he wanted to go back to the hotel and sleep. For the first time ever, we let our kids watch a TV show on my phone while awaiting dinner – just because they were becoming emotionally volatile from their tiredness and these were special circumstances. Even that didn't keep Sennen from crying from impatience. 

When the food finally came, Sennen quieted down and enjoyed his dinner. Only a few minutes in, it became clear that he wasn't eating with eyes closed because he was savoring his meal. Sennen managed to eat an entire plate of linguine marinara with closed eyes and drooping head. The adults were watching, snickering a little until he took his last bite, opened his eyes and said with a whiney, tired sound, "Can I have some more?" at which point we all burst into laughter. Sennen was unfazed and indeed ate a little more – again with eyes closed – until we left. Sennen rode back to the hotel on my shoulders and Emily carried Ailyn who amazingly fell asleep within two minutes. By that time, it was 8:00 and acceptable for them to go to bed. Both were out like lights as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

But aside from a mean case of jet lag, the day was great. Molly, Hugo, Bailey and Hayden (the last two also just referred to as Cousins most of the time), arrived in Israel at about 1 am and by the time they got to the hotel and found a nearby bite to eat, they went to bed at about 3:30 am. Needless to say, they slept a bit later than everyone else. But when they did arise, cousins were reunited and very happily played in swimming pools, beaches and beyond.

Other highlights of the day included an incredible buffet breakfast with an especially large selection of cheese items including numerous cheesecakes in observance of Shavuot; swimming at the beach behind our hotel; a belated birthday celebration for Sennen with a birthday cake made by the hotel; wine and cheese hour for the adults in the premium club lounge; and time spent all together.

Tomorrow begins our tour of Israel in earnest with our private tour guide meeting us in the lobby at 9am to begin a very full day in Jaffa and beyond. And Emily will have her first Monday – her busiest workdays of the week – balancing fun and work. Hopefully, everyone will get a good night's sleep and be ready for what promises to be a very full and enjoyable day.