The Kids are Conducting an Experiment

It's about how long a child can survive without sleep.
Last night they went to sleep very nicely. At about 11 PM Gedalya woke up to nurse. I took care of that nicely. But then Zusha got up and started squealing for some weird reason. Being that they were both in my bed, they both got up, ready to party!
They glanced at each other, burst out laughing, and climbed straight off the bed. Sure, no problem with taking a midnight walk around the house.
I will not torture myself by reliving the details of that night.
The gist of it goes like this: I tried to tackle them together, then Hillel and I tried to divide and conquer. Then I tried to put them together again. Then Hillel and I switched kids.
When Hillel decided he's had enough and went down to the sukka, I was left with Gedalya in bed with me and Zusha in the kitchen shaking a container of nuts. At 1:00 AM.

I took away his nuts rattle.
He screamed. There went any ideas Gedalya had of sleep out the window.
After another hour screaming, crying, rearranging positions... everyone was 99% asleep.
Until Zusha said, "Mhmh."
And Gedalya burst out into fits of laughter.
By 2:30 AM, though, I won.

OK, I figured they'd sleep late. Hurray!
8:30 AM. Zusha wakes up screaming that he lost his Elmo.
In case that didn't wake Gedalya up, Zusha said, "Mhmh" again.
And Gedalya burst out into fits of laughter.

I kicked them both out of my room and locked the door. An hour later I come out and see yogurt spread evenly over the entire dining room floor. I clean it up, but decide to ignore two more identical puddles.
At the refrigerator I realize something... I bought nine yogurts yesterday. Now there are two left. I only found three containers smeared on my floors. Uh, oh.
OK, so they ate and/or ruined $7 worth of yogurt. $7 for an hour of sleep is worth it.

I figured I'd put the kids to nap very soon. Actually, Gedalya went in a couple of hours later than usual and Zusha refused to nap at all. And at night they went to bed over an hour late.

That day the children, bless their souls, went above and beyond their duty to act like untamed creatures. Gedalya discovered a stack of frames that I recently bought, and, pretending they were coins to throw into slots, he sent them flying between the banister rails and onto the stairs.
He sat there, saying, "Tue? Deeeb!" ("Are you sure? Say please!" the way I always ask the kids before throwing a coin into the ride's slot.)

Imagine the scene. To the background music of "Tue? Deeb!" CRASH, I notice a pink string, attached on one side to a wall clock that's lying on the floor, and on the other side to a floss container in Zusha's hand, weaving in and out and all around me.
I start winding it back up from the closest spot I can grab. After 15 minutes, I have conquered the string.

As I sit here, there is an opened yogurt container on the floor, up side down. Kids' pajamas from yesterday and today in all four corners of the dining room, a shredded magazine serving as a disposable carpet of sorts in our dining room, shopping bags from who-knows-when full of who-knows-what are dotting the hallway.

And you know that you desperately need sleep when you mis-type more words than you get correct.
Hopefully the kids are satisfied with their experiment results so we all can have a...
Good Night!