A Bedroom Community

The children flock to me at night. It's very sweet. I can't sleep in their bed, since I'm too big, and also something of an insomniac, but they more-or-less insist that I at least sleep near them, on the floor, and often one of them will grab a pillow and blanket and sleep next to me on the floor. And if they wake up in the middle of the night, they will come recruit me from wherever I'm actually sleeping (like the master bedroom, maybe) or blogging, to join them again, dutifully. Madeleine is a bit less possessive - she's more of a Momma's girl if Momma's home, but on nights when Amy teaches, Madeleine is just as entitled as the boys, and wakes up miserable if I'm not by her side.

It gets interesting when I'm in conscious workaholic mode, like when I'm preparing material for an early-morning Skype meeting, in the middle of the night. On nights like that, they still expect me with them - Daniel and Madeleine, on Madeleine-nights - and they'll whimper for me to come into the room, but they know that I have work to do, so they'll humor me pecking away on the laptop while they nod back to sleep.

Tonight, with Amy teaching, I had to put them to bed, and I defaulted to the boys' bedroom. But there were three of them with only a single bed in use (the boys have bunk-beds, but they prefer to double up in the lower bunk). They knew I'd be on the floor, and all three of them announced that they were sleeping next to me. This was quite out of the question - there's no room on the floor for all four of us, plus it's February - not child-sleeping-on-the-floor season, even with some soft carpeting. So we went into the master bedroom, where they piled around me and all dozed off - with Ian literally on top of me. I think Amy was a bit amused when she opened the bedroom door and saw a mass of slumberers sprawled across the king-sized mattress.

Of course, Amy was odd-man-out tonight, but she shouldn't complain; she has both dogs to keep her company in Madeleine's room...

(February, 2012)