Not a creature was stirring...

I come from a long line of sleep talkers and sleep walkers. When I was in my early 20's or so, I thought I had this dream that I had driven to the house where I grew up, and had, for some reason, gotten out of my car and walked around.

At the time, I owned a restaurant with my sister, and that morning, a man that used to live near us stopped by and said, "What in the world were you doing in the middle of the road at 3:00 this morning?"

Apparently, in my sleep, I had gotten fully dressed, and driven about 4 miles, where I stood in the middle of the 4-corners of the street that met in front of our house, spread my arms out, and twirled and twirled.

I had woken my neighbors dogs up, and he came out to see if I was o.k. When he spoke to me, I simply got back in my car and went back home.

When I woke up in the morning, I was back in my pj's, but my clothes were in a heap beside my bed.

Had I done this before or have I done it since, I'm not sure.

I can't tell you how much I talk in my sleep, as it would take something equivalent to a sonic boom and an atomic bomb going off right near his head to ever wake Wayne up in the middle of the night. I do know that there are a few times I've woken myself up and literally heard myself say something silly like, "I have to put the pie back on the shelf," and have no idea why I said it.

My sister's son, Colin, was a big sleep walker when he was younger, and everyone got very used to just putting him back to bed. Doors had to be locked from the outside of his room because he would just wander away. But, he was very functional, like I am, in my sleep.

I can wake at the sound of a pin dropping three rooms away. My body can rush adrenaline so fast that by the time my feet hit the floor, I'm alert, and ready to spring into action.

My mother is a sleep talker too, and it was a fantastic tool to use as a teenager. Just wait it out...once she drifts off to sleep, she will agree to anything!

So, its no surprise that our house is seldom quiet. Dakotah blabbers all night long. She is very lucid, and I can hear her having actual conversations with her friends in her sleep. She is also easily roused and will talk with me for 10 or 15 minutes and not remember a thing the next morning. Its very strange to hear her have different emotions that must match what she is dreaming about.

And strangely enough, because she isn't even a daytime talker, lol, Paige is a sleep talker too. Often, I will hear her on the monitor, saying her favorite words "Dee-Dog" "Bud-dah" "Nee-nah" "Doo-wah" "Toe-by-a" "Ninga ning" "Nay Nay" "Mem"

I don't know what most of these words mean in her sleep any more than I know what they mean in her waking times, but its so sweet and funny to hear her jabbering away -- surely the words have great meaning to her.

And they have great meaning to me. I always joke that Paige is 51% me, and 50% daddy -- that's what makes her so darn cute and lovable. So its pretty funny that she would be so genetically wired to pick up this strange family habit from us, so ingrained in her little being that she is doing with it without even really being able to do it.

But, the absolute, most amazing part that makes my heart sing in the quiet of the night in my house, that makes me smile a huge smile and roll over and hug my pillow and say, "Thank you" to God just one more time is this...

Sometimes, Paige will be sleeping, I will her the rhythmic sound of her breathing; all is quiet in our house, and our world is calm and peaceful and then...

Paige will burst out laughing so hard that I'm sure there must be an angel tickling her belly, over and over again. And then, as suddenly as it started, I will hear the quiet breathing again.

There is nothing, nothing...more wonderful than knowing your child is so happy and loved in her world that her dreams are filled with great laughter.