Sleepover interruptus

Yesterday was a BIG party day for Miss Lydia. She had her best friend Leila's party from 12 to 4, and then a sleepover party from 4 to the next day at her other friend Erin's house. She was sooo excited. On Friday night, she was already making lists (with drawings instead of writing the list) of what to take and what they will do, and could barely sleep from giddyness. Then on Saturday morning, she had everything packed into two small backpacks approximately 10 minutes after she got up at 8, and then it was pretty much four hours of: how long until it's time to go? Finally, the clock's arm slooooowly crawled to close to 12, so I got her, the backpacks, the stuffed elephants, the blankey's, the presents all into the car and off we went to Leila's. Leila and her puppy Abby were both hanging off their front porch, eagerly awaiting the guests, balloons were everywhere. They went to Harvey's for lunch, then bowling, then back to the house for cake and ice cream. When I came to pick them up and take them to Erin's, they were both filthy and very, very happy with the world. I dropped them off at Erin's (btw, the coop that I will be applying to, very nice) into brave Julie's (Erin's mom) care. There were two other girls there already, and they were all dressed up and jumping up and down in excitement. After viewing the new hamster, the little brother, and Erin's room, they were all set to stay. I went to G.s house and we went to see the Da Vinci Code (more on that in the next blog entry), then came home and settled down for a blissfully quiet night. I watched a bit of tv, I read in bed, then finally stretched out and fell into a deep, lovely, dreamless sleep. Until 1 am, when Andy barged in, shook me up and said, you gotta go get your kid! Apparently, Julie called, Lydia was in tears, she wanted to come home. So we got into the car (Andy drove, I was too dopey from waking up from a deep sleep) and in a matter of minutes, there we were, to rescue our little girl. Who by then was all smiles, tears all dried up, blankey and elephant and goodie bag in hand, ready to go. So was Leila, who, when hearing that Lydia will get picked up, didn't want to stay either, so we took her as well. We dropped her off at her house and finally (around 1:30) got home, and my little girl, with ABSOLUTELY no sleep in her eyes said: can I have supper????? I just groaned. With half eye open, I heated up some chicken in the microwave, threw some crackers beside it and gave it to her. She marched to MY room, up to MY bed, turned the tv on and settled down for her after-midnight buffet! EEEEK. I said, no tv, eat and go to bed. But of course, I didn't sound very convincing, half asleep, so I just laid down beside her while she was munching, and the tv stayed on. About 20 minutes later, I woke to her shaking my shoulder: can I have a bedtime story? Wha???? I said, no, (this time with more conviction, obviously, because she marched off to sleep). After all that, I was wide awake, of course, and it took me another 20 min. to fall back into sleep. Sigh... But she had a great time, I got to hear all the details on Sunday morning, so she said maybe next time, she'll actually stay overnight at Erin's. I just said, but if you don't, make up your mind BEFORE midnight, please! She just laughed, she thought it was really funny!!!!!! NOT!!!! Kid, you're messing with my SLEEP here!!!!!! Don't you know how dangerous that is? Mommy can turn into a growling momma bear if she doesn't get enough sleep!