Spiking the punch

Last Saturday, we got the girls dressed up and headed to a wedding reception. Since they were serving a light dinner, I popped an empty sippy cup into my purse so that little Ainsley could imbibe whatever beverage was served without chancing her still-developing regular cup skills. The food was amazing. (The bride's grandmother was filipino and made these amazing Filipino dishes - when we went home, I told tony I felt like we had eaten out a restaurant.).

And sure enough, there was also a table with punch. We filled up Ains's cup. She guzzled it down. In between eating bites of noodles and rice and meatballs, she demanded drinks alternatively from my cup and Tony's cup. Later, she somehow convinced Tony to fill her sippy cup with punch once again.

We left around 7 pm and put the girls to bed at their usual 8 p.m. bedtime. Then the fun began. Ainsley refused to go to sleep. We kept going into her room to soothe her, but she was resistant. Finally around 9:30 that night, all was quiet.

Unable to sleep myself, I was still awake at midnight when I heard Ainsley crying. I went to her room, change her diaper, and set her back in her crib. At 2:45 am, Tony heard Ainsley crying again. He went to her room and tried to soothe her back to sleep, but she was restless and WIDE AWAKE. Tony lay down on the bed in Ainsley's room, hoping she would do what she normally does: either snuggle against him and go back to sleep immediately or wiggle around quietly next to him while he falls asleep. Neither worked. She ran around the bed. Every time Tony tried to sleep, Ainsley would shout "Dad!" and pry his eyelids open with her fingers. She didn't go back to sleep until after 5 am. Sunday morning, Tony looked like death warmed over.

The next Tuesday at work, the groom came into Tony's office and said he needed to apologize. Tony asked why. "We didn't even think to tell people that the punch was Xango mixed with Mountain Dew," he said.

I haven't decided which was funnier: the fact that the most caffeine-intolerant demographic in the nation (the guests were mostly LDS) were unknowingly guzzling Mountain Dew (in the evening no less), or the fact that the person in our family who consumed the most Mountain Dew-laced punch was our little 24-pound 20-month-old. Water for everyone next time around!