Scenes from the Circus: The Circus Set to Music

If you needed further proof that we here at the circus don't necessarily know how to quit when we're ahead, consider this: we moved the girls into a shared bedroom this week.

We've been meaning to do it forever, but we've been (read: Mama has been) slightly nervous (read: terrified) that putting two little girls in the one room would seriously disturb the girls' sleep.  Kathleen is a terrific sleeper; Madeline, not so much.  We had visions of normally sleepless Madeline making Kathleen sleepless, too.  And that would mean even less sleep for us.  And since sleep is a precious commodity around here, we'd delayed the "big move."

However, in a fit of something -- we still don't know what -- we just went ahead and moved the girls in together on Friday night.  (Don't worry, the "move" didn't involve disassembling or even rearranging furniture.  That'd been done months ago.  All we needed to move were some blankets and loveys, and well, Madeline into the newly shared room.)  The girls knew the "move" was coming someday, and they were quite receptive when we announced it would happen that night.

The move has not been completely smooth sailing.  Predictably, it takes the girls longer to fall asleep.  This has been most noticeable with Madeline, who's up far longer than we'd even suspected singing and talking at night.  (We'd not used a monitor to listen to Madeline before the girls were in together.  Madeline is more than capable of letting us know when she needs us.  Loudly.)  Kathleen largely ignores her little sister and appears to be able to sleep through most anything.   Although the first night was rough -- the new routine completely threw Madeline, who was up six times that night -- things are going better.  Now if we can just convince Madeline not to start her day at quarter to five each morning...

However, the point of all that background was that, although it has deprived us of some sleep, the "move" has provided us with plenty of laughs, too.  We get a kick out of hearing the girls and talk and sing before they fall asleep. 

The first night Mama and Daddy nearly cried with laughter listening to Kathleen command her sister, "Shut your eyes!  Shut your eyes, Maddie!" while her sister responded with an equally forceful, "NO!"  Also, Madeline has a much larger repertoire than we had previously realized -- her post bedtime medley includes Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Mary Had a Little Lamb, Holy, Holy, Holy, Sing, Sweet Nightingale (from Cinderella), and the perpetual circus favorite Tractor, Tractor.  The lyrics on the songs are a bit fuzzy, of course, but the tunes are easily recognizable.  Our favorite moment thus far, however, occurred just a few nights ago.  We don't know what precipitated the conversation, but we could hear Kathleen declare, "That's not funny, Madeline!" while Madeline roared with laughter.  When Madeline's laughter would die down, Kathleen would again insist, "That's not funny!" while Madeline belly-laughed.  They continued for at least five minutes.  And then they fell asleep.

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Madeline's love for her baby brother has only grown over the past two weeks.  She's still fascinated by him and asks to kiss him and hold him whenever she see him.  He has a name now -- Madeline's version of Indy sounds like "E."  Although we're delighted by this love, occasionally Madeline's exuberance can be a bit intimidating.

In an attempt to keep Madeline at arm's length while Mama nursed John David, this week we set about teaching Madeline "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes."  (We hoped that the hand motions would distract her from climbing on Mama and attempting to hug her brother.)  We started out our lesson by asking Madeline to show us her head.  No problem!  We next asked Madeline if she could show us her shoulders.  She paused for a moment and then ran to her father, who was studying in the recliner.  

"Dada!  Dada!" she cheered.

It took a moment for the light to dawn.  

"Oh, sweetheart," Mama replied, trying to contain her laughter, "You're right.  Daddy is a soldier.  But we're going to sing about our shoulders..."

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Thanks to the miracle of the internet, the other night we introduced our girls to the "oldies" after dinner. . .   They're naturals!