These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

The temperatures reached 96 degrees yesterday, with some ridiculous level of humidity, then last night some kind of front moved in and the result was electrifying. I LOVE a good storm, and this one was tremendous - huge flashes of lightning, instantaneous crashes of thunder, followed by continuous rumbling until the next flash. It lit up the dark room, shook the house on occasion, and once or twice sounded like the world was coming to an end when a lightning bolt hit one of several cranes at the nearby construction sites. Seriously awesome. As Toot and Puddle would say, "Sometimes thunderstorms are absolutely necessary." (Love that book.)

I lay there for a while thinking about a similar storm when I was in college. David and I went for a rainy drive into the hilly farm country outside of town, found a little road on the side of the hill and watched the lightning strike all over the valley. It bolted down from the black sky, hit the box thingies (D is not here to ask the real term for them) on the phone and electrical wires, zapped a ways down the wires themselves, and then a whole section of town would go dark from the power outage. It was like watching the special effects on a movie, only it was real - blue and white flashes, pops, booms, runbling...To this day it's one of my favorite memories.

Henry was not so impressed with our storm last night. In fact, the little guy was scared. I heard him whimper and yell out a couple times, then he started crying in earnest. At about midnight. So I went in and scooped him up. He was halfway asleep, but cuddled up on my shoulder and I brought him into my bed. He and I laid there for a few minutes, and he said, "Whassat?" after one of the flash-booms. I told him it was thunder and he sat up and yelled toward the window, "Keepa NOUN!!!" (Translation: "Keep it down!" He learned that from Calvin, who learned it from Dad. Usually it has an "up there!" tacked on to the end.)

After Henry got done telling the thunder to keep it down up there, Calvin wandered in wanting a drink and then crawled up in bed with us. Very Maria and the von Trapp children, wouldn't you say? Thank goodness Liesl didn't come crawling through the window. I didn't burst into song, either, but I was not unaware of the romance of making my boys feel safe and warm while the whole world crashes and booms in the dark outside. It's easy to be brave when you love a good thunderstorm.

Cal fell asleep again almost immediately, but Henry tossed and turned and turned and tossed and pulled blankets up and kicked blankets off, then crawled down to sleep (on top of the comforter - my pet peeve) near my knees.

This is how they were sleeping when I woke up. Did I ever really go to sleep? I think I did, but looking at it, I'm not sure where I fit into the cuddly little puzzle of nocturnal pillow-blanket wrestling. Although I woke up partially because I was balanced precariously on the very edge of the bed. And I do vaguely remember Calvin's head resting on my hip at one point. There's an unwritten rule that if children are put into a bed larger than the one they usually sleep in, they will sleep perpendicular to the larger person with whom they are sleeping. I always forget that.

Anyway, I've got a hitch in my getalong today, and everyone will be in their own beds tonight. That thunderstorm was amazing, though. A fabulous show. Even better than fireworks.