Alarming Nights

Zach has not been sleeping well lately. He wakes up and calls for me through the monitor, usually around midnight. I think the monsters under his bed have returned, darn them. Well, ok, he actually whispers but the monitor unhelpfully amplifies this to near concert-level volume (Amplified whispers are pretty creepy. Don't try at home).

So, the drill is: I come downstairs and lay with him for a little while until he falls asleep. But what usually happens is that I fall asleep and wake up hours later, freezing and with a stiff neck, and try to negotiate the Lego and HeroScape-scattered terrain of his floor quietly in the dark to sneak back upstairs where my warm toasty bed and warm toasty wife await. This doesn't usually work, Z wakes up and begs me to come back.

This went on throughout most of the night last night and I woke up very late to get Zach to school on time. We walked into school embarrassingly late for him. When I indicated that the reason we were late was that I slept in his bed with no alarm clock, he immediately solved my problem for me by telling me to "next time bring your alarm clock down WITH you".

Silly me, what was I thinking, leaving my alarm clock upstairs? :)