Last week was parent conference week. For the most part the conferences went well for both kids. Chipmunk's teacher was especially encouraging and had mostly good things to say. Surprisingly the only constructive criticism that was given was, "needs more sleep at night."
Puzzling. This kid goes to bed at eight o clock at night and wakes up a little after seven in the morning. For a seven year old, I think eleven hours of sleep is plenty.
Then one night, I visited Chipmunk in his room about a half hour after putting him to bed and he was still wide awake.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Bedtime is complicated," Chipmunk said.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Well, I try to count sheep, but then there's an elephant stomping on the fence that the sheep jump over and the sheep don't know what to do anymore. Once they figure out what to do, that elephant is back and stomping on the poor little confused sheep...and that's why I can't fall asleep."
"I see. That is complicated."
The next night his dad found him awake.
"Why aren't you asleep?" he asked.
"It's those elephants again. I keep seeing them jump into a lake and splash all the sheep," Chipmunk explained.
"Splashing the sheep, huh?"
And then the next night...
"Is it the elephants again?" I asked.
"Yes. I tried to imagine a portal to take the elephants away, but it sucks up the sheep, too, so then I can't count sheep anymore."
Sigh. Bedtime really is too complicated.
