On Staying Awake

Remember that time you met that girl and thought, “I could stay awake with her forever.” Every day is like that for a kid.

This occurred to me when Noodle ratcheted up his going-to-bed protests last night. As always, he made any and every excuse he could find to stay up longer. He just had to finish building this tower, racing these cars, drinking this juice, vrooming this firetruck, reading this book, painting this paper red and blue and green.

Isn’t he tired I wonder. Does he ever get tired?

Sure he does. But he’s excited right now, because everything is exciting right now. Everything is brand new. Everything is that adrenaline shot of a girl the day we met. Noodle doesn’t want to go to sleep because he doesn’t want to miss out.

Then I realize that all those nights I stayed up with Noodle, taking care of everything he needed: feeding him, rocking him, cuddling the scared away — that was me not missing out. And I remember that time I met that girl and thought, “I could stay awake with you forever.” Every day is like that for me again, but this time with a little boy who just wants to stack Legos til dawn.

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