I resisted my initial thought to unplug the laptop and haul it out to the lawn along with a few of Eli's favorite DVDs. I mean, it was dark and what were we going to do with a toddler who took a nap at 5:00 p.m. and therefore had a good two hours of awake time left. We crawled down to the bottom of our sleeping bags and turned on the flashlight and settled in.
My grandson looked up at me with the sad eyes and requested a ghost story. Oh sweet Jesus!. This is the same kid who won't walk down to the basement to get a toy if the lights are off, even in the daytime. Then Ashley informs me I have permission to tell a ghost story as long as it ends with puppies, or cupcakes of hugs. Okay I get it. So we spent the next hour telling the most ridiculous stories about skeletons eating Twinkies and bats making friends! I was never really good at making up stories for my kids. Jon was the parent with that talent. These stories last night though, were particularly...lame, and Eli loved it!
Story telling was followed up by finger shadows. Then a campout snack and then finally we settled down and played a game of quiet and listening. We took turns listening to the sounds of a quiet country night - a dog barking, the breeze blowing through the trees, Poppy's water fountain running outside. That was just about it - no sirens, traffic, neighbors, honking...none of that. It was Friday night on top of it all and the quietness still permeated our tent.
The campout ended abruptly as Boo and Mike (Eli's cats that I board and I feed) decided to make a flying leap onto the top of the tent and scare the pants off everyone. Eli laughed nervously along with the rest of us and then he promptly announced that he was going inside to sleep in a real bed. Ahh, thank you Boo and Mike.
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