Creeping about at night

I got a bit of a start tonight when BallFiend suddenly materialised in our lounge room. He had been tucked into bed at about 7:30 pm and all was quiet. Suddenly, our sleepy boy appeared out of the dark hallway, rubbing his eyes, to tell us that "my nappy is uncomfortable". After the necessary adjustments were made, DeepSpice carried him back to bed. But our misdemeanour had not escaped notice:

"Why are you eating your dinner at the coffee table in front of the TV?" he asked.

"We'll talk about it in the morning." I replied.

I've been waiting for this to happen, even since we moved him out of a cot and into a 'big' bed about a year ago and I'm surprised it has taken this long. I'm very glad he didn't call out for us to come to him, as that might have woken Thumper. But I wonder now how long it will be before he starts playing the get-up-after-going-to-bed game and we will be learning new parenting tricks for keeping a four-year-old in bed after lights out.

I have a strong memory from my own childhood of creeping out of bed at night, once my parents had settled down to watch TV, so I could keep watching the TV too. I would strategically position myself out of view by lying on the floor in doorway to the lounge room, with my parents sitting on the couch, their backs to me. From there, I could see at least the half of the screen by looking through the gap under the couch. Every ad break, I would jump up and rush back to my bed, my heart racing with the thrill of nearly being caught. Of course, now that I am a parent, I realise that my parents no doubt knew what I was up to but chose to let me 'get away with it'. No idea why though.

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