The family and I went to Lucy’s house last night (aka our old house) for a relaxing terrace dinner leading into a raucous terrace going-away party. We’ll miss you, Lucy!

The plan was for me to bring Emily home early when Little Girl bedtime was approaching so as to allow Jan to stay and dance her socks off till the wee small hours. But, when yawns and eye-rubs arrived, everyone was having so much fun that Jan convinced me to put Emily to sleep in the quiet bedroom so I could stay and enjoy the festivities. The plan worked flawlessly until about 3am when Emily woke up and, even after various attempts at hushes and lullabies and rocking and milkies, she would not go back to sleep. She knew there was a party going on and she wanted part of the action.

So what did her responsible parents do? We brought her out to the terrace to boogie down with Fatboy Slim and The Chemical Brothers, of course. And there she boogied for well over an hour. It wasn’t all dancing, mind you. Emily also participated in some nighttime stair climbing, some moonlight floor sweeping, and a little nocturnal telephone dialing. All the while I was being eaten away by guilt from knowing that I was failing her as a responsible father. Well, not the whole time. I was actually having a good time. But when 5am drew near, my feelings of ineptitude grew too heavy to bear. We packed up, said our goodbyes, and walked home. Emily didn’t last more than three blocks before she was down for the count.

Apparently, toddlers aren’t very big on sleeping late in the morning – even on weekends! As a result, today has been declared National Nap Day.