*insert spooky music here*

I haven't really told this story to anyone until now, but a recent incident has prompted me to share it. Many months ago, while the girls were still in their old room off the kitchen, I was up one night trying to get Hadley to go back to sleep.  Most of the memory is pretty fuzzy by now, but most nights involved Brandon and I arguing at 3am over whose turn it was to go rock one of the girls back to sleep (sometimes it was both of them, which meant nobody got any sleep).  One of us would go in and feed whichever baby was awake, then rock them back to sleep.  Sometimes, when we'd put them down, they'd fuss and cry a bit, so we'd pat and shush them as they lay in the crib.  One of those nights, I was standing over Hadley's crib, patting and shushing, when I felt Brandon--or so I thought--touch my hip as if to say, "I'm here, don't be startled."  I turned around, grateful for the help--and no one was there.  No one.  Granted, I was pretty tired.  And it's possible I could have started to fall asleep myself and bumped into the corner of the dresser that was between their beds.  But...it was pretty creepy, and I can still feel that very definite touch on my hip.  So for the next few weeks and months, I would sit awake in the middle of the night, rocking and shushing babies, and trying not to think about any other presence in the room.

In March, we moved the girls into their new room, and after a couple of months they started sleeping through the night.  I was relieved to get some sleep, and relieved not to have to alternately sit alone in the dark or feel guilty about leaving the girls alone in the dark with whatever I was trying not to think about.

Last weekend, we were painting the girls' room that they moved into in March.  The girls were napping in our room, and Dad and Brandon were out on the back porch working on the door.  Brandon's parents and I were in the girls' room painting with the door closed to minimize noise.  Mom was wandering around out front by herself.  After a while, she came to the door and said she'd been walking back and forth through the kitchen trying to see if she could see again what she had just seen--two little bare feet and legs rounding the corner from the kitchen into the girls' old room.  At first she thought it was one of the girls, then she remembered they were still asleep.  Then she thought it was one of us, even though she was sure it was toddler feet she'd seen.  So she waited, then walked into the room to see who was there.  No one.  She decided it was a play of light and shadow, and started trying to walk the way she'd come to catch it again.  Nothing. 

My mom's never reported seeing a ghost to me before, so it's kind of atypical behavior for her.  There are stories of things my grandfather experienced (at other people's homes) but that's about it.  Mom turns 78 this year, so it's possible it was a play of light or a visual trick, but when you put her story together with mine...well, it's something to think about, at any rate.

I don't like to use the word ghost, so help me think of another word to describe our possible tenant.  Something cute and fun...not spooky or evil, please ;)

evolution of a room

Back in March, we moved the girls from their old room off the kitchen (even though days of work into making it a nursery to begin with) to the den in the back of the house.  I posted something about painting "soon," which apparently meant October!  Yes, we finally got it done last weekend, thanks to a lot of help from my parents and Brandon's parents.  We spent the whole day painting, installing a storm door (since their room has an exterior door), and putting in a closet organizer (I won't discuss the level of difficulty this always entails, but will direct you to previous posts here and here).  Brandon also caulked where the walls meet the floor and around the windows, as well as removed the pipe and patched the wall where the old gas heater pipe vented to the outside (the gas line was a dead end and had been cut before we bought the house).

I searched the blog for old photos of the den/nursery and thought it was interesting how the room has evolved over the last few years. 

 

   

Next on the horizon is hanging stuff on the walls, painting the trim, and putting in some insulation in the floor and ceiling.