It Never Rhines but It Pours by Erin Evans

over to your side of the bed. Ah, romance.
    The next morning things were back to normal. I awoke to the sound of singing. Loud singing. It seems that Mark had let the girls watch Ni Hao, Kai-lan a few times when I was gone. I was repeatedly invited to join our good friends because it was time to play on a super special day. It’s not that bad a theme song, as children’s theme songs go, but hearing anything sung over and over, even in a cute off-pitch voice, starts to grate on your nerves.
    I threw on my bathrobe, poked a snoring husband with no response, and tromped across the house. A rhythmic thumping sound was added to the singing. I quietly opened the child safety gate that keeps little visitors from joining Mommy and Daddy early in the morning, and stepped into the girls’ room.
    Cassidy was sitting on her bad, back against the wall, bouncing in time to her song. Now that I was in the same room the song sounded extremely garbled. On the other side of the house my brain had filled in the missing consonants of the song. Here, it was like listening to a foreigner sing English without having a clue what he was singing. Cassie was matching the sounds of the song, but she didn’t really understand the words.
    For a wonder, Megan was still sleeping peacefully. How in the world she managed to sleep through the racket, I have no clue. I sat down on the bed by Cassie and put a finger on my lips to tell her to be quiet.
    “Hey, sweetie,” I whispered. “You need to stop singing.”
    She closed her mouth with a smile but kept bouncing back against the wall.
    “Stop bouncing, baby,” I pulled her into my lap. “Why are you awake so early?”
    “Singin’” she whispered.
    “I can hear that,” I said. “Megan’s still asleep though. You need to be quiet.”
    “Me sing, ‘eg’ll tet up.”
    I nodded. “Yes, if you sing loud enough, Megan will get up. But that’s not very nice. You need to let your sister sleep.”
    “Why?”
    “Because,” I stopped to think. It was early. My brain wasn’t fully functioning yet. “Just because.”
    I stood up and scooped her into my arms. Quietly we tiptoed out of the room and back across the house. Far worse than the Rhine Maiden thing, I was cursed with the inability to fall back asleep after being woken. It’s truly a burden. I deposited Cassidy on the bed, where she burrowed in next to her father, who didn’t stir at all, and went to get a shower. At least I would be clean and ready to face the day.
    I like to sing in the shower. There’s great resonance. All those tile walls mean that your voice sounds fantastic. I had just finished a stirring rendition, Whitney Houston style, of “I will always love you,” was toweling off my hair and stepping out of the shower when I heard a little voice.
    “Singin’ pitty, Mommy.” It was Cassidy. She was awake and standing in the middle of the bathroom. I covered myself with the towel and shooed her out of the room.
    “Go wake up Daddy!” I suggested. “Jump on Daddy!”
    “I heard that!” came a muffled voice from the bedroom.
    “Oh,” I said in mock surprise. “You’re awake!” I tucked in the edge of the towel under itself in an impromptu dress and followed Cassidy into the bedroom. “Fancy seeing you this early in the morning.”
    Mark groaned and pulled the covers over his head. “ Very early in the morning,” he said, sounding muted through the fabric.
    “Go tickle Daddy,” I whispered to Cassidy and boosted her up on the bed. She went at it with a vengeance and a pillow fight had started by the time I finished getting dressed and doing my hair and makeup.
    “Alright,” I said, catching Cassidy in mid-leap across the bed. “That’s enough. Let’s let Daddy get up while we go start breakfast.”
    “Pancakes?” she asked.
    I shrugged, “Sure. Why not?” She ran squealing into the kitchen, looking a little saggy in the rear. Whoops. I’d forgotten to check her diaper first thing. It definitely needed