Tip-toe

 

They’d been asleep for nearly two hours when she carefully and silently turned the knob on the door to their room, then holding her breath, slowly let it open.  All that could be heard were the gentle snores, or snore-letts if you’re a baby, of the little girls asleep in their cribs.  As usual they’d kicked off their blankets and their little bare legs lay vulnerable to the cool air that their mother kept running constantly in the hot summer months.  Still holding her breath, she tip-toed in with the stealth and silence of a cat before the pounce.  The oldest twin, Elizabeth had her blanket wrapped around her leg in a manner that meant it wanted to stay where it was.  Becky tip-toed around the room in search of another blanket, then gently lay it on her girl.  Inhaling, at last, she turned to the other twin, Miriam and luckily only had to pull the kicked off blanket back over her. 

All was well and all she had to do was carefully tip toe out of the room and shut the door behind her.  As she quietly backed away from Miriam’s crib, her foot bumped one button on the “V-tech Write & Learn Letter Pad”, which in the darkness had been hidden but was now as visible and loud as a piercing alarm clock.  The ever-so-annoying word game which even in the wakeful hours would make one want to throw it out a window toward the wheels of a passing truck (a car would be too gentle a death for such a toy), had been activated and without light the off button could not be found.  Becky whispered a few choice words, grabbed the toy and angrily tip-toed out of the room before the babies woke up.  Babies can fall back to sleep if they are awoken by a noise but if they realize that that noise came with their mom, there is no quietly going back to sleep.  She waited, nothing, they slept through it all, even the whispered profanity.  A miracle indeed.  So, she wonders, why does it only take her walking past their room with the door shut, lights off, everyone in bed, and one heavy foot on a squeaky piece of floor board to wake two sleeping babes?

The two beautiful and wakeful babies are at this moment relishing the squeaky house’s version of an alarm clock, and are enjoying the sounds of letters, song, and the v-tech’s voice of encouragement as they scribble on it’s drawing pad.  “That’s beautiful!  Let’s draw some more!”  The girls’ mother says, while looking resentfully at the v-tech, “Maybe tonight. Midnight work?  Like when everyone is asleep?”