Last night, while Kelley was finishing some work on the computer, I went upstairs and got ready for bed. Within seven seconds of my head hitting the pillow, I was sound asleep. (That’s probably my most amazing talent in life. Come by sometime…I’ll show you.) I don’t know how long it was after that - 10-15 minutes, maybe - I was awakened by someone poking me in the back…it was my wife.

Kelley: (in a quiet whispering voice) Butterfly is in the hall. She’s asleep at the top of the stairs
Me: (still groggy) What? Why?

I looked into the hall and sure enough, there’s Butterfly curled up into a little ball and lying face-down. Usually, if she needs to go potty during the night, she’s just awake enough to come get me and tell me, but still too sleepy to do it all herself. At any rate, I walked over to her and knelt down…

Me: (in a soft, gentle tone) Butterfly….do you need to go potty?
Butterfly: Shhhhhhh! I’m hiding -

I think she said this in her sleep. At Kelley’s bidding, I picked Butterfly up and carried her back to her bed and covered her up. She slept through the whole thing.

My fear now is that my daughter will start to do (and say) things in her sleep - because I do that. One of my wife’s favorites is when I wake up with bugs all over me and the bed. So naturally, I jump out of bed, rip the covers off, and swat at these things. The downside to that is that Kelley doesn’t see them and is unhappy when I wake her up with this sort of stunt.

So when Butterfly wakes up in the middle of the night swinging at invisible bugs, her daddy will come help her squash those spiders until it’s safe to sleep again. I know how pesky those things can be.