Today, a nap...

Woke up at 3 this morning to the sound of Zane opening his door and coming into our room.

“Oh, mommy? Zaney needs to see Raz and Tink sleeping.”

I got up to see what was happening and we walked into the bathroom. Need to go potty? “No. Where’s Tink and Raz?” They are downstairs, sleeping, like they always do. “Oh.” Do you need something? “Yes, need drink of water.” So we headed back into his room, he had a few sips, then back to bed, a little snuggling and I left, wishing him goodnight. Back in bed I lay awake, listening to the night, as is often the case when waking at 3am. Could just make out a faint bit of rain or sleet (the forecast calling for “six inches of snow or sleet”). Some strange sound from the wind or something, a little bit later a power bump off/on. I got up just to check on things, being the daddy and all, wondering around the house and trying to figure out what the weather outside was doing. As I noticed some branches were down (pictures here) the power flipped off and on a bunch of times and then stayed off. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but there’s a UPS (backup power) in Faith’s office that lets out a loud beep each time the power goes off. After a handful of those I heard Zane crying.

He was pretty scared so we talked about it for a bit and even looked out the window at the fallen branches. He was still shivering, but started getting into talking about how the “wireman is getting in his truck to drive to Zaney’s house to fix the wires” and then later adding a “leafman needs to come and put the branches back on the trees.” Eventually, when no power returned, we headed into the big bed so all three of us could snuggle (well, mommy was asleep) and share the thick comforter.

Every once in a while I could hear the muffled thump of another branch falling outside, some heavy enough that the house vibrated a bit. One was big enough that even Faith popped up with a “did you hear that?” so of course I had to go check everything again, and of course Zane had to follow a minute later. The two of us checked out all of the windows and talked more about the “wireman” and then headed back to his bed with an extra blanket, hoping that at least Faith would get a decent night’s sleep. We may have drifted off, but there were quite a few “Oh, daddy?” remarks and eventually it was after six and light outside. So we checked things out again an started the morning, sans electricity. Another day off from school. I eventually headed into work (town was in much better shape than our neighborhood) and sometime after lunch Zane fell asleep.