In the home of the Catholic Librarian at 4 am...

*blissful blackness*

"Mommy!" *loud crying*

Huh, that's weird. Apparently I'm having a dream, and there is a crying child in it. Oh wait. That's not a dream, that's my life.

*Mike mumbles in his sleep and rolls over*

Looks like I'm getting up.

I stumble out of bed and into Anne's room.

"Hi Honey, what's wrong?"

"Mommy, can you stay in here for a very long time?"

*saucer eyes*

"Well Sweetheart, we really should all be sleeping. Is something wrong?"

"No, I just want you to read me a book."

"Wellllll, why don't we just go back to sleep, Sweetheart? It'll be time to get up in just a few hours, and then we can have our bowl of cereal together. Won't that be nice?"

My answer is a dubious expression.

"Mommy, can you bring me something from your room to hold?"

Her bed already has more dolls and stuffed animals in it than it can comfortably accommodate, but this bothers her not one bit.

"Do you want me to bring Tennis Baby back to you?"

She had loaned me "Tennis Baby" (not sure how the doll received this name, exactly) to care for overnight while she slumbered with her larger doll, Bernadette.

"Ok. Wait. No, it's all right, Mommy. I'll be all right here with Bernadette."

*curls up on her side*

Awwwwwwwww. I re-covered her and rubbed her back for a minute before swooping in for lots of kisses and heading back to my own bed. SO.SWEET. It made me think back to when she was a newborn and not nearly so reasonable to deal with in the middle of the night. :0 I went back to sleep pretty quickly too, so all was well. I love precious moments such as these.