Asking for help.

After a full day with the kids I felt my patience slipping. I had just put M down. I had gotten L and T's teeth brushed. Now all I needed was some quiet time for T so that he could get to sleep. T was demanding a story, and I was looking forward to telling that story and listening to him drift off to sleep.
The monkey in the wrench was L. She was jumping and tickling T until he started kicking her. I knew I was going to have to physically remove L or coax her to leave the room. I felt my blood pressure rising and breath shortening.
I really wanted to give my wife the whole night off, but I was cooked. I took a deep breath, left the room, calmly walked downstairs and called in the reinforcements.
"J, can I get a hand upstairs. I just need you to take L for a minute while I put T down. Once he is out I will take over with L."
"Sure." She replied.
The story with T was a riot. He had shown up at this mornings soccer game with his buddy J. They were both dressed in full Power Rangers costumes. They headed padded muscles, swords and helmets. It was adorable. So tonight, the Power Rangers T and J traveled in their space craft to the planet TJ. On that planet there were many dinosaurs. T and J flew berries up to the Brontosaurus'. They also helped to keep the T-Rex's away by spinning them around by their tails and throwing them in the river!
T thought that was hilarious and asked me to tell it over and over.
I finished the story and did some sit ups while T drifted off to sleep. L was sleeping when I emerged from the room. The kids were all set.
I was happy that I recognized that I was losing my patience and that I went for help. In the past I would have tried to handle that myself and would have picked up L in anger and moved her into her room by force. I always feel deep regret when I do that. Or worse, I would have yelled at her and admonished her for her lack of cooperation. That is not very realistic or empathic towards her state of mind at that time of night. That was a huge win to finish off an all star day. I feel lucky to have my wife around.