Heart Strings

Cory & I are out of town right now and Mimi is watching the girls. She's having all kinds of adventures, including this one that happened in the middle of the night:

Oh, this will tug on your heart strings. I'm sleeping on the sofa and I hear a couple of coughs that could easily be ignored - especially since it was 3:00 a.m. and I didn't get to sleep until 12:30.

Well, after a few more coughs that I could no longer ignore, I filled a couple of sippy cups with water and staggered in to the girls' room to check it out. There was nobody in their bed and it felt like the Twilight Zone because I could hear this distant, muffled cough. I ran back in the family room - no girls. After checking out the living room, their play room, and both bathrooms on this end of the house, I quickly looked in your bedroom - no girls. WHERE ARE THEY??

I turned on their bedroom light and looked more closely. Ree was asleep on the bed, but was horizontal at the bottom of the bed and was easily camouflaged among all the pillows and blankets. Now the hunt was on for Coughing Ryan. Laundry room: empty; all corners of the living/dining room, including under the table: empty.

By this time, there was no coughing to guide me, which greatly impeded my Search and Rescue efforts - that and the darkness, the fact that it was 3 in the morning, my confusion over the whole thing, and tripping over Muffin and Maddie as they 'helped' me. I kept calling Ryan's name, but HEY, these girls don't answer me when they're wide awake and it's the middle of the day!

Okay, she had to be in your bathroom or closet. I knew from the first look that she wasn't in your bed because the bed was made and that in itself was a strange and unsettling sight! This IS the Twilight Zone!! I was closing in on the mystery because she had to be in your bathroom. Well, in my rush to the bathroom, I truly almost stepped on my little RyBoo. She was curled up on one of her blankees with her baby beside her right under that shelf hanging on the wall - fetal position, but face-down, little butt up in the air, sound asleep and sucking her thumb.

Ahhhhhhh..... She must have gotten up during the night to get in bed with Mommy and Daddy and just decided to curl up on the floor since you weren't there. As I gathered her and her baby up to take them back to their bed, she sleepily said, "Hi Mimi..." Tucking her safely back in next to Reese, I told her I love her. "I love you, too, Mimi."

As I was getting ready for bed last night and setting the alarm, I thought I should turn off the lamp in your bedroom and then didn't. So glad I didn't because she could have stumbled all over your dark bedroom looking for you and Cory.

I might sleep in their bed with them tonight..........