"Kip"

Four hours.

That's how long our older son was awake in the middle of the night last night. I wish I could say that this was unusual behavior; but, the truth is that his sleep patterns range from "not bad" to "just plain rotten" without any sort of sense. How lucky for all of us! We're in the middle of a rotten spell!

Lately, he's been on a kick, remembering a song that I have sung to him since his infancy. I can't take credit for that song. Heck, I can't even find it in an on-line search anymore so that I can properly reference it.

It's a song about a security blanket, worn with love, and its owner's loyalty to it. Both of our kids have security blankets, as did my husband and I. There's nothing like the bond of a child and his blankie.

"Fluffy," our son called out to me around midnight last night.

That was his signal to me that he wanted me to sing the song. For the record, the word "fluffy" is not to be found within this song's lyrics. Rather, "fluffy" was his closest approximation to the word that started the first verse.

Out of bed I crawled. I sang to him. I kissed him gently as I tucked him in, and I said, "I love you. Now, go to sleep."

Fifteen minutes passed.

"Fluffy," he called out to me.

With a sigh, I returned to his room and again sang the familiar song. Kiss and tuck in.

"I love you," I said, and I went back to my own bed.

Thirty minutes later, I heard, "Fluffy!" from our son.

Argh!

Quick song. Kiss. Tuck. Out the door. This stinks.

Ten minutes passed.

"Fluffy," he called to me.

"SING IT YOURSELF!" I yelled to him. I was over it.

And, he did--in his own words that only his family would understand and with perfect pitch, he sang the song. My heart melted. I climbed from my bed and walked to his room. When I reached the doorway, there he was, sitting up in his bed with a giant grin on his face.

"Kip!' he said to me.

I smiled. "You want a kiss?" I asked.

"Kip!" he responded.

It was half past an obnoxious hour in the middle of the night, but for a moment, I didn't care. I walked to our son's bed knowing that there was no place that I would rather be.


This entry was written in response to the letter prompt "K" in the Blogging A to Z Challenge 2012.