A story about an elephant by Ellie, and I'm tired

Ellie's latest stalling technique is to get us to tell her a story AFTER the two books have been read (or six books, when Daddy's being a sucker). Tonight she decided to tell me a story. I requested one about an elephant. Here it is, as verbatim as I can remember it.

Once upon a time, there was a elephant. And a boy. No, a girl. And the elephant was a boy. And THEN, they decided to eat. And they ate poo. Ewww. And THEN the girl said I'm going to eat food. So she had some fruit. And it was strawberries! And THEN they ate poo. And then some strawberries. Then there was a duckling! It said quack quack. Then back back. It was SUPPOSED to say quack quack, but it said back back. That's so silly!

(Me, interjecting) What's a duckling doing in this story? Where did it come from?

The pond. And THEN they went to the zoo to find a baby! It was a monkey baby! And THEN they saw a caterpillar and it went up and up and up like that. The end.

I don't know about you, but I see future Newberry award-winning author!

So anyway, I'm really tired these days. I think it's partly because I got into the habit of taking a short nap every afternoon while Ellie watched Dora. Now if I don't get that nap, I'm exhausted. The other day I was driving home from the airport around 4:30, and I was swerving and falling asleep the entire time. Ellie was babbling away, and I was responding, but I'm pretty sure most of my responses were fairly incoherent.

This morning, Ellie woke up at 6:15 because she'd peed in her Pull Ups. She's really determined to wear underwear through the night, but I told her she had to wake up with dry Pull Ups 10 times first. She had peed and was all upset about it, so she was at the top of the stairs screaming and crying. So I changed her Pull Ups, put her in the bed with us, and lay there for 40 minutes trying to sleep with the kicking. Then of course Matthew decided to wake up as soon as Ellie fell asleep. I thought I may be able to get him back to sleep and went to his room. He practically leapt to his feet in the crib joyfully, ready to play.

I was so exhausted by 9am, I took the kids to my mom's house, and Matthew and I napped while Ellie was indulged with an hour and a half of TV. I was still out of it all day, having skipped my afternoon nap. Then I started getting a headache around 3 in the afternoon. By 4, I was almost in tears, thinking that I wouldn't be able to survive the rest of our planless evening, especially knowing I had to somehow feed, bathe, and put down the children on my own (Peter's at his rehearsals every night this week). In desperation, I called my mom who came over and entertained and fed the children for a couple of hours. How did I spend the precious free time? Answering emails, folding laundry, and cleaning up toys. Boo.

I think my lack of sleep is just catching up with me. I average about 6 hours of sleep a night, which I'm starting to see is not enough. I probably should start exercising, too. I took one of those Real Age tests onilne. Since I didn't smoke, drink, abuse drugs, or drive recklessly, my real age was looking good. Then I said I didn't exercise at all, and it aged me about 15 years. Sad.

I need to go to bed. Argh. Still so much to do...