When the Odds are Never in Your Favor

Here is a bit of advice. Don't watch the Hunger Games and then go and sleep in a room with five kids under 5.

Not only will you have Hunger Game-inspired dreams, you will awaken every 15 minutes to the sounds of those tributes, kids in their various state of slumber.

I am pretty sure Katniss got more sleep strapped into that tree branch then I did on Saturday night.

The Lady went full on Peeta Mellark and camouflaged herself beneath so many blankets, I wasn't sure if she was even in the bed.

The Wild Ones, The Big Guy, and the Little Lady moved so often that they were barely on their beds. I found each one of them in various states of slumber with legs and arms off of mattresses, wedged between Aero beds and walls, in a constant state of motion that not only kept me up, but kept me guessing.

There is nothing like rolling over and seeing your 3-year old niece sleeping peacefully on a mattress on the floor and then opening your eyes ten minutes later and not seeing her at all until you finally make out her little body wedged at the bottom of her brother's bed, covered in blankets. It is peace followed by sheer panic.

I kept waiting for an ambush.

Those tributes, kids know how to keep you on your toes, or in my case, wide-awake in a half-dream state battling teenage killers and tired toddlers until the sun shone brightly through the windows and the only cannon that sounded was for the death of sleep.