Snickering, Snorting and Squealing - Oh My!

Sometimes a gal needs a quiet night in with a great friend. It's been months since we were last able to get together, so imagine my excitement over seeing T for my birthday this weekend.

We had a yummy home-made lasagna for dinner, with special bakery cupcakes for dessert…all compliments of our very generous guest. The Princess helped me with my dinner and dessert, and T and The Hubbs put a good dent in a box - that's right...I said box - of wine.

After a fairly relaxed evening in, we all hit the hay before midnight.  Just before five o'clock in the morning, I awoke in a haze. I had a feeling something had torn me from my slumber, but I couldn't remember what.

Then I heard it: what I thought was a sob. A few minutes later, I heard it again. Not very gracefully, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and staggered to the princess's room. I gingerly opened the door and tiptoed to her bed, then sunk – again, not very gracefully – to my knees on the floor beside her, and I waited. There was no sign that she had been awake at all…her little chest was rising and falling with the even rhythm of uninterrupted sleep, and there was no other movement or sound in the room.

Just as I was about to write myself off as crazy, I heard it again…only this time, it was pretty obvious that the sound was not a sob. I turned to see my angelic little girl, eyes puffy with sleep, grinning. It had been a laugh. And in case I had any doubt in my mind, she reaffirmed this fact by looking me straight in the eye and cackling.

It was five o’clock in the morning, the house was dead silent if you don’t count the breathing of two other adults and three doggies, and my daughter was laughing so hard she was having a hard time catching her breath. By this point, she was sitting up in bed, tears streaming down her perfect little face as she repeatedly guffawed at nothing. Delirious after having woken so abruptly, and in such an odd fashion, I had no idea what to do.

After bringing her breakfast in her room, attempting to play quietly with her, and hoping beyond hope that she’d just go back to sleep, I realized I was going to have to change tactics if anyone in the house was going to catch another wink. Ushering The Princess into my room from hers, I grabbed A Bug’s Life from the DVD collection and popped it into my little thirteen-inch television set with the built-in DVD player. I had somehow maintained enough presence of mind to grab a couple of her favorite toys from her room on my way out, and we set up camp on the big bed.

All hopes of sleep dashed, I settled in with my Sookie Stackhouse novel while The Princesstore around the room like a Tasmanian devil. Who needs toys when you can terrorize Momma and Da’s room? She must have spent an hour straight in the closet, playing with all of the wonderful hanging things and peering through the lacy curtain that serves as a door. In case you were wondering, there was still much laughter…but it seemed to have died down just a bit since leaving her room.

Before long, everyone else had rolled out of their beds, and it was time to free The Princess and The Girls from our bedroom. All three of them shot through the hallway and into the living room like cannonballs, racing to see who could get to Auntie T first.

We all knew she’d have to leave and head back toward her city place eventually. It was a great time, and I hope to do it again very soon.

Even after Auntie T left, the princess was a giggly little goofball. She ran around the house snickering, caught my eye and snorted. We went outside to play with sidewalk chalk and take a wagon ride, and she hooted and hollered the whole time. We made a little family outing to the Home Depot to start our garden supplies for the year, and she happily dragged her daddy around the garden center at Mach 10, squealing all the way.

I don’t know what brought this on, but I’ll take a happy girl any day of the week. And – I’m glad to report – she was in bed by 8:30 on Sunday night…and I wasn’t far behind.