Moments of panic.

I've been blessed with two children that sleep VERY well. Most nights, Gigi is in bed by 9:30 with a "thank you, mommy" and "lub you too, mommy." I typically don't hear a peep from her until after 8am. Gabe is a little harder to get to sleep, but he's been getting into a better routine lately. More nights than not, Mike likes him to sleep with us. You may think that's weird, but Gabe is a great cuddler and Mike is a super softy. It has happened- more than a few times- that G will go to bed in his room and Mike will go get him when he goes to bed and bring him in with us. I don't mind too bad either; it reminds me that he's still my "first baby".

Last night wasn't completely out of the norm. Mike was at work and I had a meeting to go to, so I left the kids with a sitter around 7:30. When I got home at 10, the kids were both asleep in their respective rooms. I checked on Gigi, tucked her blankets back up and closed her door- like I do every night. I peeked in on Gabe, brought him an extra blanket, left his door open a foot or so with the hall light on, then went to bed myself.

To say that I'm a morning person is a SEVERE overestimation. I am SLLOOOOWW to wake up. BUT, I do have mom ears, and thats the specific reason I close Gigi's door at night - I typically wake to her turing the handle of the door and always to her closing the door behind herself (like she usually does). When my alarm went of at 6:50, again at 7 and finally at 7:10, I pulled myself out of bed and headed down the hall to the bathroom... where I stopped in my tracks and stared at Gigi's open bedroom door.

Now, at this time in the morning, it takes a lot of effort to get my wheels turning and I start playing scenarios out in my head:

Think, Carly, what time is it? It's 7 am... is anyone awake in the house? No, it's quiet.... Well, maybe Mike checked on her when he got home from work. That has to be it... why didn't he close the door? Oh well, go check on her again and close the door- if you are real quiet, she won't wake up and you can still go for your run... this is actually a good thing because that jacket I wanted to wear is in her closet... is she even?...uhhh... where the hell is she? She's not in her bed... at all!

Panic sets in, I look in Gabe's room- not totally unusual for him- he's sleeping sideways on his bed, feet hanging over the edge. I run into our room and around to Mike's side of the bed in case she fell asleep on the floor or something... I yell to Mike, "Gigi is not in her crib!" He jumps up and we start searching.

The first thing I do is run downstairs and make sure the front and back doors are still locked. Then I check the pantry because, well, to be honest, she's a total fatty and if she was gonna HIDE somewhere... well, the pantry would be her go-to spot. She's not in there, or in the garage, either of the bathrooms...

Mike calls down to me, finally, that he found her. She had crawled in bed with Gabe and was completely cuddled up to him and under his blankets. While Mike's busy oohing and ahhing about how cute they are and how sweet it is that they love each other so much, I'm busy trying to swallow my heart that made it's way into my throat.

NOW, I can think how cute and sweet it is that my kids wanted to cuddle. Now. It took a good 4 miles of hard running to get that stress out. Phew.