Friday, December 31, 2010

Sleepwalking?

Not only does Ada apparate, but apparently she might sleepwalk too. While enjoying one of four, yes four, Christmas's, we were staying at my parent's house and getting up frequently with Iain in the night. As I was trying to go back to sleep, I noticed a faint set of footsteps on the stairs at two in the morning. Knowing that it couldn't be either of my parents since it was too light, I assumed it was our little Ada. Sure enough, I went to the kitchen and found her rounding the corner by the garage door. She jumped a foot when I said, "Hi, sweetie." I offered her a small glass of water and shuffled her back up to bed. Then I jokingly chastised my mom for not being a better watch dog since they were sharing a room and Ada must have walked within inches of my mom's face without her knowing. She also luckily avoided tripping on either of my parents' large golden retrievers, and navigated the stairs in the dark all alone while in footie pajamas. I made sure to shut their bedroom door after putting Ada back to bed.

She's also been up in the middle of the night at Grandma Ba's and Grandpa Rich's house, but only to turn off the light in the hallway just outside her door and return to bed. That wasn't so dangerous and I'm impressed that she could reach the light switch.

We'll see if this behavior continues and try to be more cautious about shutting and locking doors and clearing all walking paths throughout the house before bed. We may even have to keep the dogs from sleeping right outside the bedroom door since she would surely trip on them and fall down the stairs in the process and that's not really what we're going for now is it? And maybe we'll have to invest in one of those laser beam bells they use in retail stores that ding every time you walk through the front door. Then we could be alerted to the fact that she was on the move and we could at least shuffle her back to bed. I'm hopeful that once she gets back home to her own bed, she'll go back to being our good little sleeping beauty. And for once I'll say I'm thankful that we have two heavy vestibule doors to prevent her from getting outside on any potential sleepwalking missions.

Moral of the story: It is always good to keep your house picked up, doors locked and dangerous items out of reach. Even more so when you have a sleepwalking child.

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