Burned...by a three year old

Nate's bed was empty when I went to his room to wake him up this morning. I kept it together long enough to yell his name, and he yelled back 'I'm down here'.

I went downstairs and found him on the sofa, tucked in comfortably with a pillow and blanket. The following exchange proceeded to take place:

Me:

What are you doing down here?

Nate:

I couldn't sleep so I came down here.

Me:

What time did you come down?

Nate:

At night, it was still dark.

Me:

Why couldn't you sleep?

Nate:

You were making too much noise.

Me:

I was making too much noise? I didn't make any noise last night!

Nate:

You were too noisy dad, your snoring was too noisy. I couldn't sleep. That's why I came downstairs.

I'm not sure I like the idea of my three year old wandering around the house in the dark while everyone else is asleep. That said, this incident has clearly demonstrated that Nate has not inherited my night blindness. I'm not sure how he made it down the stairs in the dark, but I am pretty sure I would have ended up as a mangled mess of broken bones and torn flesh if I had tried it.

He could just as easily closed the door to his room.

Just when we thought it was safe to go out to dinner

I worked the closing shift at the goat today, and mum and dad came to get Nate for the afternoon. He was very excited to see them and wanted to stay over at their place tonight. Patty and I decided we'd meet for dinner after I finished my shift.

We'd just finished a fabulous meal at Mezza, when my cell phone rang. It was mum, calling to tell me that Nate had been crying for the last 10 minutes and he wanted to come home. I guess it could have been worse, we could have just sat down to eat. So we caught a cab home and he arrived shortly afterwards, all smiles to see us.

I'm not sure what happened this time, he's slept over and mum's a few times now without any trouble. But he told me he wanted to come home because he missed us. How can you argue with that?

Patty told him it was OK and he could stay over at nana's another night. His reply?

'And then I can come home at night?'

I hope this is not the start of a new pattern.

I was only gone for a day...

Natal day in Halifax, a celebration of the birth of the Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. I worked a full shift at the Goat today, the first time in awhile since I've been on my feet for nine hours straight. My feet are killing me!

I left home while everyone was still asleep, and when I got back I was greeted by Nate running down the hallway yelling 'Dada!'. He was talking up a storm, about what he was doing, and what he'd been up to during the day.

'We went to Sobey's because we didn't have any baking soda. Then we came home and we made chocolate cookies.'

'Did you go to work dad? Were you on the bus? How did you come home?'

We had supper out on the deck, it's Nate's favourite thing now, having supper outside. I realize I was only gone for a day, but he seemed so much older to me when I got home.

For the past week or so, I've been leaving his bedside light on after reading him his bedtime story. He wanted to "read" his book one night after I read it to him, so I told him he had to turn off his light after he was done and go to bed. I said I would check in on him later. He's been good to his word so far, and every time I've gone up to check, his light has been off and he's been asleep.

Now, after I read him his bedtime story, he tells me:

'I'm going to read my book, and I'll turn off the light when I'm done. You can check on me at 4.30 (he still doesn't know how to tell time and makes a new one up every time).'

It's a good job I'm back to my half days shift tomorrow, who know how much more growing he'll be doing while I'm gone!