If you need me, come get me

Zuzu has always been an excellent sleeper. A phenomenal sleeper. As good a sleeper as a child could be. When we replaced the side of her crib with a guard rail so she could get out of bed herself, she still didn't get out of bed until she'd slept eleven hours.

Then one morning she got up, and I was still in bed. So she came into our bedroom. And found out that Bear was in bed with us. Because he'd woken up too early and I brought him into bed for more sleep and snuggles.

So now in the middle of the night she comes into our room and asks to get into bed with us. She also comes in to ask me to fix her blankets. She also gets up before falling asleep just because she wanted to say goodnight again. She has discovered that she can get up, in other words.

Tonight when I was tucking her in, I told her to stay in bed. I stroked her hair and said, "If you need me, I'm happy to help you, but stay in bed if you can." She looked at me seriously and said if she needed me she would come get me. I nodded at her lovingly, because she's such a good child that I was afraid if I gave her strict bed rules she'd refuse to get up even when she really did need us. I put my face close to her sweet, beautiful, pink face. And then she reached up her hand and began to stroke my hair. "If you need me," she told me in a dear little tender voice, "you can get out of bed, and come to my room, and tell me that you need me." I was enraptured. "That's good to know," I said. She continued, still stroking my hair: "If Daddy's in your way [in bed], you can come tell me, and I will say, 'Daddy, could you please scooch over, you're in Mommy's way.' And he will say yes." Then she repeated another couple times that if I needed her I was to come get her. She was most sincere and most kind. My heart was so full of love for that little three-year-old girl as I left her room.

Daddy and I chuckled at the idea of taking her up on the offer.