Partly Cloudy with a Hint of Bravery

I don’t know what it is about western North Dakota, but we sure do get storms out here. I don’t remember the weather being quite as severe growing up on the eastern half of the state. Sure, we had storms, but out here we have house-rattling, Jurassic-Park-water-glass-quivering, lightening-blinding storms. And they all seem to happen during the night.  I can’t even count the number of times I have tuned on my TV in the middle of the night to see if we are in some kind of warning for our area.  Wyatt and I hid in the “storm cellar” at least 4 times that I can remember last summer and have visited once this year already, fearing tornadoes were going to hit.

Normally, both children sleep soundly through these earth shaking storms.  On Saturday night, however, through the thunder I could make out Wyatt screaming in his bedroom. (That’s how loud it was. I could barely hear him. SCREAMING.)  I went to go check on him and he jumped out of bed, big crocodile tears streaming down his face. “I’m scarwed, mommy! Thunder is scarwy!”  So I let him come snuggle up in our bed until the storm passed.  Chris was gone fishing (shocker) so it was nice to have the company.  I have always been scared of thunderstorms myself, bad things always happen in scary movies when it is storming out – am I right?

So, normally during a thunderstorm, if I am home alone (sans Chris) I tend to pull the covers tight upto my chin and peer around the room, waiting for the axe murderer to step out of my closet just as the lightening lights up the bedroom.  Through my blurry 400/20 vision, just about everything can be made out to be an axe murderer.  But this night, with Wyatt lying next to me I felt strangely, well . . . brave.  Me? Brave? I am the girl who STILL will not let her feet hang over the edge of the bed, not even a toe. The monsters lurking under there may swipe off my foot in the night, you know.  Even when I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I immediately turn on a light once leaving the safety of my cozy Tempurpedic.  What was this strange feeling?  With Wyatt there, I guess I knew that I had to be the brave one, ‘cuz he was scarwed. So I let Wyatt sleep in my bed that night, the first time I’d ever done that. And I  enjoyed having some cuddle time with my boy. The boy often coined as The Boy Who Doesn’t Snuggle.

I guess there are a lot of new things I have experienced now that I am a parent.  If you would have asked me five years ago if I could imagine myself doing these things, I would have  looked you straight in the eye and told you to go jump off a cliff.  These things include, but are not limited to:

1. Giving a suppository

2. Being puked on

3. Trying to catch the puke you are being puked on with to save the carpet

4. Sharing a sucker with someone

5. Riding in an ambulance with my unconcious 2 year old

6. Eat, sleep and breath my children

7. Wiping spit up onto my pants ‘cuz we are in a store and I have nothing else

and the latest addition to my list  . . . .

8. Sleeping with my foot over the edge of the bed.

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