I've always prided myself in my good sleepers...that was my first mistake..."pride goes before a fall".  ...and really, my kids still all sleep amazingly well...David and I can both take credit...not so much that we taught them well, but that they inherited our "love to sleep" gene...unfortunately, they also inherited our "hate to go to bed even though we know we'll be miserable in the morning" gene. 

I rarely get up in the night with a child...even when they're sick or hacking up a lung, they just sleep right through.  When I was a newer mom, I'd hear them coughing and start stressing out that they were going to wake up and be up all night...I gave that worry up pretty quick because it just didn't happen.

But my wonderful, beautiful, sweet, helpful, inquisitive, 2 year old...Susanna...has broken the mold...the child doesn't seem to need the volume of sleep that the rest in the family needs or desires.  She can often be found at 2am, 3am, and/or 4am, fraternizing in the boys room burying Sam in books, emptying all of the boy's dresser contents into Sam's crib or climbing up into her sister's top bunk and taking all of the stuffed animals out of the hanging net and burying Julia...or emptying her sister's closet neatly onto the floor or her own entire dresser.  She is busy and she is sooooo quiet.  Even when Sam wakes up, they just go about their business of her trashing the room and him quietly approving each move as if they know that the first noise one of them makes will end their fun. 

It reminds me of when I attended church children's camps as a little girl...the excitement of sneaking out of the cabin at night to go play some ridiculous trick on the boys...I never made it far...what group of 9-year-old girls can stay quiet running through the woods in the middle of the night on a covert mission?!?!  But, somehow, Susanna has no need to squeal in delight or giggle with nervousness over the thought of getting caught.  She's a pro.  Even when the inevitable happens and she accidentally drops something or shuts a door a little too loud and she gets caught...there are no hysterics, she just high-tails it back to her bed, braces for what's comin' and answers my command of "Susanna, it's time to sleep, stay in bed." with a non-chalant, "Yes, Momma".

We've actually taken to locking the boys room when they go to bed so that Susie can't go in there.  They know how to open it and we can open if from the outside very easily with a hangar...this, so far, has kept her out of there, though she has figured out that somehow the hangar will get the door open...she just hasn't been successful yet...it's just a matter of time.  Now she just stays in her room or plays polly pockets in the hallway or looks at books in the bathroom . 

All of this nighttime activity, though, sometimes leaves her a bit testy and irritable and downright tired in the morning.  A week or so ago, I was working in the kitchen and I hadn't seen Susie in a bit.  I called to her and she answered from the family room that she was "readin' books".  3 minutes later I went to see what she was reading and this is what I saw...

She is such a joy...it is so fun to listen to a child learn to talk and Susanna has been no exception.  She is saying new phrases every day and repeating everything she hears...her brothers delight in hearing her repeat, "Patriot's Rule!" while Daddy prompt her to say, "Patriot's stink" or some such.  She loves to please her audience!