Little People In Dark Hallways Scare Me!

Lately Daughter has felt that her bedtime is too earlier...apparently.  We do the bedtime ritual of potty, brush teeth,  three stories, potty again, hugs and kisses, prayers, lay down, lights out.  It's been that way since she was about six months old and it's been good...until recently.

She would sit in her room, in the dark, playing, singing and then it would turn to yelling that she needed to pee again or she needed water or she wanted to say she loved us one more time.  Basically anything that stalled bedtime.  Bedtime stayed around 8:30pm but sleep time stretched to about midnight.

About a week ago we went through the whole ritual and I came downstairs prepared for the stalling to begin and I heard...nothing!  I was cautious about celebrating cuz we all know what happens when you celebrate too early.  About an hour later though with no sound coming over the monitor...I started celebrating!  YAY!  That phase had ended!  I went and took a very relaxing bath with tension releasing bubbles.  I had a glass of wine on the edge of the tub that became empty too quickly.  I even got to shave my legs without a toddler asking twenty questions about why I would do that.  Now, relaxed and sleepy, I brushed my teeth and set off up the stairs for my fabulously comfortable bed...BEFORE MIDNIGHT!

I commonly go up the stairs without turning on the light especially if Daughter is asleep because I don't want the light drifting into her bedroom giving her reason to start playing twenty questions in an attempt to stay awake.  I reach the top of the stairs and out of nowhere a little person attaches their arms around my thighs.  In a sleepy relaxed state this scares the absolute shit out of me and I automatically try to back away...screaming!  I grab the door frame at the top of the stairs barely saving myself and the little person from falling head over heels down the stairs.  My foggy brain is trying to figure out what horrible thing I did to the little person community to the point that they would send a stealthy little person ninja to my house to shove me backwards down the stairs, breaking my neck and making the whole thing look like a terrible accident.  No police officer would believe that a little person ninja did it!  Through my terrified scream I hear the little person screaming and it finally hits that I recognize that scream.  I struggle down the hallway with the little person still attached to my thighs to the light switch and sure enough it's Daughter hugging tightly to me.  You know how when adrenaline drains from your body when you think you're in danger and realize you're not so your screams are replaced with hysterical laughter?  Yeah, that happened.  Daughter's scream became laughter quickly too.

"Honey, what are you doing sitting in the dark in the hallway?"

"I got bored sitting in my room in the dark..."

"We put you to sleep two hours ago!  Have you been out here that whole time?"

"No, I sat in bed for a while but then I got bored and came out here."

"You never said anything?  I never heard you over the monitor...do you need something?"

"I didn't say anything cuz you and daddy told me to be quiet so I sneaked out of bed and sat here waiting for you or daddy to come up.  I didn't want to scream cuz that's not quiet."  Good reasoning?!?!

"Honey, we put you to bed and said be quiet meaning GO TO SLEEP!"

"Oh...well that's not what you said."  Again, good reasoning!?!?

"OK...well I'm going to sleep now and I would really appreciate it if you crawled into your bed quietly and went to sleep."

"OK mama."

I went and tucked her in, gave her another hug and kiss, continued on to my room and fell asleep dreaming of little people trying to kill me.

That was about a week ago...totally related, Daughter has given up naps so bedtime really does mean sleep time again.  There have been no little person attempts on my life since then.