parents, inc

Walter has been having nightmares lately. Most nights we toss him into bed with us until he calms down and then he snuggles with Dad on the walk back to bed.

Unfortunately, last night was kind of our fault. As the husband and I got into bed, I looked at him and said, "We need to change Walter's diaper. I forgot to put him in a nighttime before bed." We grudgingly got out of bed and made our way into the nursery. There was Walter, curled on top of his fuzzy, completely dead to the world.

The husband looked at me and said, "Are you sure about this?"

I was.(insert speech on diapers leaking and clean bedding and a recently washed fuzzy) We just needed to move with stealth. We got to work. From the crib to the changing pad, Walter was still asleep. We moved with his stretches to get his little legs out of his pajamas. We switched diapers. And then as we were getting his little legs back into his sleeper, Walter's eyes opened. His mouth twitched. He shot us murderous looks. He opened he mouth. and. WAILED.

The husband insisted that he would be fine once we put him back in bed. We walked out of the room to wailing. We stood by the crack door, listening to more sobs. We got into bed serenaded by the distress of our child. The husband sighed and got out of bed. Three minutes later, with no end in sight, I heard a voice down the hall say, "Should we go find Mamma? Let's go find her." Sniffles. Light sobs. "There's Momma." Screaming.

Snuggling.

Hand holding.

Gibberish.

Reaching for Dad's beard.

Sleeping.

Snuggling. All the way back to bed.