Hey! Something's Burning!

So I stayed up WAY too late tonight, especially since I was tired by 9:00 (it's a little after 1:00 am, oops). I know it's stupid, but sometimes I am just too tired to climb the stairs, get ready, and get into bed. Tonight, I was getting really far on a cross-stitch that has been a UFO (unfinished object) for a while, too, which was added incentive to stay awake. Thank goodness I finally got up off my butt when I did.

I walked up the stairs and immediately smelled something burning. We have had phantom burning smells before, and it always freaks us out when we smell them at night - probably not the best sign, right? But tonight, I checked the office where H was calmly playing Xbox, totally unaware, and it wasn't in there. We walked into L and M's room and flipped on the light to see smoke from the top of their bunk bed where L was sleeping. H grabbed her and pulled her towards him away from the smoke. I climbed up to find she had smuggled a small reading light into her bed. She left it on, went to sleep, and the light got tangled up in her blankets. The blankets were smoking where a small hole had burned through the fleece and her sheets were all browned around where the light was. The mattress was really hot as well. I untangled the light and H unplugged it from the wall. Then we woke L up. She had slept through the whole thing - H and I were not exactly quiet - and the mess was only inches from her face when we walked into the room.

I now wonder what would have happened had I gone to bed earlier. Our room is down the hall and I never would have smelled it in time. H couldn't smell it because his door was shut to keep the noise down for the kids. She was in the top bunk of a wooden bed, tangled up in blankets that were catching on fire. I truly thank God that she's okay.

My Stink Bug

It has taken me forever to get these pictures up. Again, no surprise. W's first play was on March 25th. It was "The Bugz Play" for his Kindergarten. He was so cute!! The pictures don't do him justice. I know I'm prejudiced, but he was beyond amazing.

He went right up to the microphone and spoke his lines - he had quite a few - clearly and distinctly. He wasn't nervous at all.

He remembered all of the songs and the dancing.

The costume nearly killed me. I was so sick from being in my first trimester that the last thing I wanted to do was make a costume. And of course he picked a very detailed stink bug to make.

(Really, who's fault is that - I gave him a choice. What did I expect?)

And of course I waited until the last minute and couldn't find sweats in the right color. And of course I ran out of dye the night before it was due at school (several days before the actual play so I had a little wiggle room.) And of course he was the cutest thing on the stage that night!

I was kind of miffed because they didn't help him tie his pants and he had to keep pulling them up his first few times across the stage. (He walked across the stage several times while the rest of the kids yelled "Pee-yew!") Nor did they didn't bend his antennae out of his face so they hung straight down. And, really, what is up with that make-up? We parents were told to take our seats and they would help the kids get dressed. I think next time I'm going to have to be "that Mom" and stay with him whether they like it or not. The make-up got all over his costume, too, which is awesome. Enough griping.

Anyway, we had a hard time getting out of the building after the play because so many people came up to congratulate him on his performance.

I am still so proud I could burst.

That's my boy!

I Lost M today

We lost M today for a little while.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have lost a child. Nor is it the second, or third. But I digress.

Thankfully, we were in the house when it happened this time so I didn't start to get nervous until we had searched the house top to bottom - more than once. Then we really started to get serious. We checked all of her usual hiding places - closets, behind dressers, in the tiniest corners...honestly, the child deserves a medal for her hiding abilities. Then I checked my closet again and I heard the slightest snoring sound. She had burrowed herself way back into H's uniforms, curled into a ball under some shirts she had knocked down, and fallen asleep...naked. She was supposed to be getting into the bath when she went missing, hence the birthday suit. We never would have found her except for the snoring. The first few times through, we were calling for her and making all kinds of noise so we didn't hear it. How she slept through our racket is a mystery.

I went to find my camera to video tape it and while I was looking (it too seems to be lost right now) she woke up and came staggering out. I think her legs were asleep.