It was planned ahead that neighbor Logan (5) would spend the night with us before his mom had knee surgery.  I was in his house when his parents told him to take a bath and get pajamas on.  Having done his part to get ready, he wanted to bounce across the street immediately.  He took time to hug his mother goodbye and was out the door as soon as I stood up.  Amy was there, too, and she did the nicest thing.  She asked if she could borrow a crock pot.  As they handed it to her, she said, “I’ll have a meal in the pot ready for you when you come home from the hospital.”

Logan stood at the end of his front walk, waiting for the signal to cross the street.  Amy and I told him to go on, because John was inside ready for that force of energy to burst in.  Old man and little boy were already doing things together as we ambled across the street.

Before we could play very much, it was Logan’s bedtime.  We had promised he could sleep in the upper bunk.  He raced down the hall, climbed the ladder, took a look at the bed, and came back down.  He’d rather sleep on the lower level.

John tucked the boy in.  He didn’t want to pray himself, so John had a shortened version of his own childhood prayer, ending with prayers for Shawn.

We went down the hall to John’s office — far enough to give Logan space and close enough that he could hear our voices droning on as we discussed a new cell phone plan for John.  In due time, all of us were bedded down.

Early the next morning, as Shawn was heading to the hospital, she and I texted.  I reassured her that we hadn’t heard a peep out of Logan all night.  I have to amend that to say I didn’t hear her son.  John reported that he heard something at 2:30 in the morning and found Logan snuggled with a lap robe, watching TV.  Back to bed he went.  Around 4:30 John felt someone nearby and woke.  Same routine – back to bed.  We get up during the night anyway, so having a real reason to get up was no big deal.  At 7 we went in to wake Logan.  He was sound asleep in the upper bunk, so at some point after 4:30 he switched beds.  I grabbed a quick shot of John on the ladder for the wake up call.

When it was almost time to go for the school bus, we couldn’t find Logan’s jacket.  It was about 48 degrees outside at the time.  John and Logan crossed the street and discovered the jacket inside the backpack.  I remembered his parents told him to pack one, but I didn’t realize it was with his school things instead of his clothes bag.  Abbie, the little white dog, took advantage of the open door and went out for a quick bathroom break.  That gave me time to take a photo of the fellows waiting for her to get back inside.

I intended to get a shot of the boy going to the bus, but I forgot that one.  I feel sure his world returned to normal as soon as he crossed the street to the waiting bus.  Before I finished writing this, Bob used Shawn’s phone to let us know she was out of surgery and that it went well.