"The distance is nothing; it is only the first step that is difficult." (Madame Marie du Deffand)

For the past week, my son has been waking me up during the night babbling and laughing away. The catch?

He's not awake.

Since we bed-share, I'm incredinbly aware of every movement and sound he makes. Chaulk it up to a mother's intuition, I suppose. When he pulls me out of the depths of sleep with some chatter and giggles, I'm ready to plead with him to go back to sleep because it's clearly too early to be awake. But no pleading is necessary since he's still dreaming away.

I've also noticed that his limbs have been doing a lot of hypnic jerks. When I try to cuddle up next to him to sleep, his arms and legs appear to be trying to shake me off, kind of like a cat that got its paws wet.

I asked the Leakies on The Leaky B@@b page if they had experienced something similar with their loved ones. Those who answered responded with a resounding "Yes!" I especially liked this comment:

"It happened with each of my kids whether they were in my bed at that age or not. The way it was best explained to me was that even as adults, when our minds are overwhelmed with a subject, trying to find the solution to a problem, upset by something that occurred that day, we stay up figuring it out. Since babies are just trying to work through their milestones, they might go to sleep, but are not deep enough and toss and turn trying to 'work out' their obstacles."

So true! How many nights have we adults carried a problem into our dreams? If I had a nickle for every time I had a nightmare about book ordering, I'd never have to work again!

My son is so close to taking his first step, it's heartbreaking! On a few separate occasions, he's let go of either my hands or his Daddy's hands, hovered for a moment, but has decided to either fall back against our knees or grab onto our hands again. Just yesterday, he started walking alone with the assistance of his walker. Before I know it, I'm going to be chasing this child around the house. But for now, I'm going to listen to his little giggles and stories at night, and perhaps take the advice of one Leakie and "capture [it] on film to save for later!"

Proud much?