Most nights, Michelle and I will gather ourselves on the couches in the livingroom and watch TV. Our house is set up such that we have a pretty good view of the staircase and some of the upstairs from the livingroom, so if the kids get out of bed, we’ll see the lights go on, or hear one of them kicking around upstairs. Ryan will usually hang out at the top of the stairs because it lets him see what’s going on in the living room.
Tonight, though, there wasn’t anything going on. We elected to goof around on our computers in the den, which is removed slightly from the staircase. Michelle was researching one of her favorite subjects — Josh Duhamel — and I was working on one of my various software projects. It was pretty quiet, and we hadn’t heard a peep from the kids since we put them to sleep.
As it happens, we got up together. Michelle wanted to get something to eat, because apparently a couple of bite-sized mini corn dogs doesn’t make a full meal; I had to let the dogs out, because they were starting to whine at the kitchen door. So we both headed to the kitchen together. When we got there, we heard Alyssa start to cry in her room, so after I let the dogs out I headed upstairs to see what the problem was –
– and almost tripped over Ryan, who was laying on the top two stairs, sound asleep.
I took care of Alyssa, who had apparently had a bad dream, and tucked her back into bed, then went back to check on Ryan. Michelle was in the process of picking him up. He didn’t really even wake up that much, just let out a long sigh and snuggled into his mom while he got carried back to his bed.