Old habits die hard (and sometimes stain)

For as long as I can remember I've been somewhat of a "night owl." When I was five years old, my maternal grandparents lived with my family for a few months and I remember sneaking in to their room after I was supposed to be asleep to watch Trapper John MD with my Grandpa (well at least the beginning; all I remember is the theme song). Other early memories include wondering why everyone else got to stay up later than me (duh, I'm the youngest) and still being wide awake when my older sister (8 years older) would eventually come in to our shared room, turn on the light and her "new wave" music and start reading or doing homework. As I got older I would often be up late talking on the phone, listening to my own music, doing homework or talking with my brother Todd. In college, I was always up late and pulled so many all-nighters that it will probably shorten my life by at least a year or so... Even now, when I'm supposed to know better, I perpetually stay up later than I should and I really can't recall EVER going to bed before 10:00pm unless I was sick--really sick.

Should I be surprised that my 6-year-old is suddenly finding it "impossible" to get to sleep at night?

An inevitable consequence of staying up late is what I call "the seminary feeling." This is defined as the "sick" feeling you feel when you've stayed up way too late and then wake up way too early. This term stems (of course) from my high school years of getting up for early morning seminary. Well, Burke got up the other day with this very feeling. He mentioned that he felt really tired and didn't sleep well. He was on our leather couch (easy to clean) and then moved off of the couch just enough to vomit all over the carpet and rug.

Might I add that he had just had some red fruit punch to drink to which I'll say, "What kind of mom lets her kid drink fruit punch when they get up in the morning?" Well, me, I guess. He wasn't feeling too hot and said it sounded good to him--this mistake will not be repeated. I tried to be compassionate about the fact that he had just thrown up, but was really worried about the (now) red carpet and the fact that Tosh was running around. I secured the baby, told Burke to go into the bathroom to shower and then I got to work on the stain. I would like to insert my ode to Oxi Clean here:Oxi Clean, you once again did your thing and my carpet and rug look as good as new. Thanks!

Burke felt just fine the rest of the day and so I am left to conclude that this incident was due to lack of sleep. Thankfully, he is starting to be able to sleep in ("sleeping in" means past 8:00am around here) which is helpful with summer (lighter later) and with school out... I've often thought about how getting our boys to eat well (quantity) and sleep well are currently two of our biggest challenges. The irony is that I know that in just a few years we'll have three teenage boys who won't stop eating and we will have a hard time getting them out of bed in the morning... As for me, I don't see my habits changing much. Currently, I stay up late to enjoy the "quiet time" after the kids get to bed and get up early because the kids are up early. Down the road I will be up late because I'll be waiting up for my kids to get home and will be up early because, well, because I'll be "0ld" and won't be able to sleep in!