sleeplessness and books

Three-year-old Scientist will squirm all night and keep himself up. When he was a baby I had to swaddle him tight to get him to sleep. In his squirming last night he stuck his foot right into my back. It was only 10:30 p.m. but I had been asleep for about an hour with four-month-old Storyteller at my breast. By the time I settled Scientist down, I was unable to get back to sleep. I finally passed out at 3:30 a.m. Storyteller woke up at 7 a.m., just 3 hours later and, of course, I had to get up with him. Today I can't think straight. When I'm this tired, I walk around in circles starting one thing to do after another, not even finishing the first step before I can't remember what I'm doing. I've been making lists so that everything gets done. My morning list is, "Dress the children in weather-appropriate clothing, feed them breakfast, brush their teeth, clean the kitchen, read them a book." How horrible that I need to parent by rote today. Hopefully the Scientist's not picking up my total lack of patience. We've mostly been reading all morning. We read Mother Goose, compiled by royalty of nursery tales the Opies and illustrated by the lady who does that Max and Ruby cartoon... Rosemary Wells? My husband is creeped out by her illustrations -- I think it's a form of homophobia -- rabbits don't wear dresses! -- but the children and I really enjoy her style. The only thing I don't like is that in a few places the rhymes are modernized. For example, "Snips and snails and puppy dog tails, that's what little girls are made of." Now, I did like puppy dogs, snails and spiders when I was a little girl, but I think children need to be familiarized with the classic form of literature before they can be expected to enjoy satirical forms. And yes, I group political correctness in with satire. I recently went through Hirsch's Cultural Literacy and made up a list of all the classic folklore I want my little ones familiar with. Then I went to a mega book store online and filled my cart up with the best picture book version that I could find for each these folktales. A lot of them have been beautifully illustrated. Even buying most of it used (which is not always a deal since shipping adds up to as much as it would cost new), it came out to $500.00. Less than tuition at the Core Knowledge kindergarten, I guess.