Lesson #49: Mom is an ogre.

Lately, C has taken to sneaking into my room at night and crawling into bed with me. He steals a pillow, wiggles down deep in the sheets and pretends to go to sleep.

His mom, if she's still awake, will sometimes seek him out and make him go to his own bed. At first, I was an advocate for the child sleeping in his own room, but his despondant wails are just so sad, and his little face is just so cute, and so lately, I've been advocating for his escape from bedtime.

This means that we have become compatriots at sneaking around after lights out. C quietly steals into my room, gently shuts the door, slides into bed, and then wiggles all the way under the covers down to the foot of the bed. When Mama opens the door and asks, "Have you seen C? Is he in here with you?," I wink at her, point to the wiggling, giggling lump under the covers and say, "I haven't seen him. He must be in his own bed."

When the coast is clear C crawls back up to the surface and whispers, "Is she gone?"

"Yes," I say.

He waits for a noise, any noise, then throws the covers back over his head. "She's coming for me!"

"No," I say. "That's just the wind. Or the neighbor's cats."

Eventually we fall asleep.

Last night, C was supposed to be sleeping in his own room, or with his own mother, whichever. I drifted off into a nice sleep and was suddenly wakened by C running into my room and slamming my door. He threw himself into my bed, stole one of my pillows, and layed there, looking at me.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I am sleeping with you," he answered.

"Why?" I asked.

"Because mom is an ogre," he answered.

Suddenly the door handle rattled and shook. Mom the Ogre was trying to get in. But C had locked the door.

"Did you lock your mother out?" I asked.

"Yes," he answered.

"Go unlock the door," I said. C didn't want to. I insisted, so he hopped out of bed, unlocked the door, then ran back to the safety of the sheets. The door was silent. Mom the Ogre had left us alone for the night.

"You can't lock your mom out," I said. "That's not nice."

"She will make me go to sleep," he said.

"I will make you go to sleep," I answered.

C promptly closed his eyes and pretended to snore.