A Mommy Story

I left work a little early last night and got home around 7pm. As I walked in the door, I noticed that the lights were low, and the TV was off. I assumed Aaron had just put Cordy to bed. Aaron looked up at me from the couch, where he was playing City of Heroes on the computer. “Hi dear! You’re home early.”

“Yeah, well, I finished all my work early. How are you?”

“Doing fine. We’re having a little bit of quiet play: I’m playing on the computer, and she’s playing quietly on the floor.”

At this point I realize I haven’t seen anything else moving in our living room. I thought she was already in bed. I scan the room for a moment, panicked that perhaps the gate was down and she had climbed the stairs, and then notice this:

“Um, Aaron, she’s asleep.”

“What? No, she’s just playing with the basket on the floor, see?”

Examining her more closely: “No, dear, she’s out. Out cold.” I stroked her cheek, which normally wakes our light sleeper, but she gave no response other than sighing quietly. Oh, those baby sighs, how I love hearing them!

“But…no! She was just playing with the basket! I saw her playing with the basket!”

I don’t know when he last looked up from his game to check on her, but it hadn’t been recently. Or if he did glance at her, it wasn’t long enough to notice that she wasn’t moving, and that she and the basket had not changed positions since the last time.

As I tried to get her ready for bed, she didn’t even wake when I undressed her. She was sleeping deeply, and had probably been sleeping deeply for at least 10 minutes before I got home. The flash of my camera didn’t even disturb her.