"turn the lights on mommy"

last night we went to nanaw's house (as we do every thursday) and returned home a little later than usual. the boys said that they were tired, they said that they wanted to go night-night but their actions didn't exactly match. well pooks' actions didn't match.

for example, ten minutes after tucking them in a certain toddler starts yelling ''mommy" at the top of this lungs. i rush upstairs to see whats the matter and he's standing in his bed. he sees me and says "mommy, i pay?"..."you need to go pee?"..."no, i wanna PLAY." and he proceeds to climb down. um, excuse me?

''pooks, you need to lay down. it's bed time, we do not play. it's dark out and it's time for you to go night-night, you already played at nanaw's house."

"i need to pee?"

"do you need to go potty now?"

"yes. then i pay?"

"yes you can pee, no you cannot play."

so after taking him potty [again] i get him all tucked into bed [again] and return back downstairs. i get all comfy on the couch and call nanaw, i'm talking to her about various things and tell her about the above conversation with pooks when speak of the devil, he starts yelling again. once again i trek upstairs and as soon as he sees me he says that he needs the lights turned on.

"pooks, it's getting really late and you need to go night-night. we are not playing and i'm not turning on the li ------what do you have in your bed? what are you laying on?"

so, i flip on the light (which remember, is what he wanted). i get closer and see that he has a bunch of books in his bed. the rule is that they each can have one bed to look at while they lay down.

"[insert full name here]! you have way too many books in here, you know you are allowed one book. you are suppose to be sleeping. now lay down while i put these back on the shelf."

as i pull back the flat sheet i see a LOT of books. he's laying on them, they are under the pillow, under him, on the floor, under his bed...he had cleared out the entire 2nd shelf of the bookcase! i am trying so hard not to laugh as i start counting them out loud as i put them away.

bubba then says ''pooks you got too many books. you can have just one!"

"he does have WAY too many books! ...twenty....twenty-one....twenty-two...twenty-three....twenty-four...twenty five! twenty five books pooks? you are allowed just one."

"just one?" yeah, like this is a foreign concept or something

"just one. you need to lay down, close your eyes and go night night. it's really late guys and you need your rest. lay down, go to sleep. i don't want to come back up here again."

i was trying so incredibly hard not to laugh. and it definitely isn't helping that i'm on the phone with nanaw during all of this, with the cordless phone in my hand the entire time i'm talking to bubba and pooks. so while trying to discipline him, i can hear her laughing her butt off.

i can't even convey how funny this was. we're not talking about 25 little board books, we're talking a ton of these books:
they are a series/collection from 1986, they are hard cover and i have all 19 books...which as you can guess, were all in his twin bed. along with various board books and other full size ''real'' books.

the kid cracks me up but at the same time, it wasn't that funny. i mean it was 9:30 at night, they are usually asleep by 8pm. i had actually gotten peanut settled down easily, i was looking forward to watching grey's and project runway but instead ran up and down the steps 100 times. i love that kid but man is he a character!