That thing that goes BUMP! in the night: A Short (but true) Story

It was night and we were sound asleep.  The baby had had a restless early hours of the night so she was sleeping in the pack n' play right next to my side of the bed.  In the distance I could hear a faint boom.  I was still foggy from sleep so I thought that it must have been in my dreams so I rolled over and began to fall back asleep.  Boom boom boom...There it was again.  What are the boys up to so early?  I looked at the clock and realized that it was only around 2:30 a.m.  I strained to listen again to see if I could figure out what they were doing to make that kind of noise...boom boom boom...I was surprised to find that I didn't have to strain to hear the sound.  It was actually a very loud boom.  I sat up in bed to prepare my groggy self to get up and tell whoever was in the bathroom to stop being so loud with the door....BOOM BOOM BOOM.  Okay, that was definitely NOT the bathroom door.  I reached over to shake the sleeping husband.  In a very loud whisper I said to him, "WHAT is THAT?!"  He heard the sound and sat straight up in bed.  At this point my heart was pounding at a million beats per minute.  Someone was trying to beat down our door?!  The only thing I could think of was that I had to get to my children, but the cautious husband made me hesitate.  He didn't think there was someone beating at the door...he thought that whatever it was or whoever it was, was already in the house looking for something.  Panic started to creep in.  What do we do?!  Our babies were down the hall from us and we have to pass the stairs to get to them, but if I run down the hall someone would be sure to hear my footsteps.  I was thanking Jesus that our baby girl was "safely" with us (as safe as anything could be at this point), but I was scared for my boys.  I didn't want them waking up to that sound and being scared, and I didn't want them to draw attention to themselves with their screams.  The husband was trying to listen very carefully to try to hear some clue as to where exactly these intruders were located and what they might be after.  At one point my panic took over and I just pushed past him and softly scampered down the hall to check on the boys.  This made him jump to action and look down the stairs to see what he could see.  I found two boys sleeping soundly, oblivious that there might be anything wrong.  Then I hear my husband run down the stairs and call out to me.  I ran to the top of the stairs sick to my stomach with my heart beating nearly out of my chest.  You would not believe what I saw.......

The husband was retrieving a helium filled balloon that had been getting draw to the ceiling fan, getting beat up and pushed back, only to sneak back into the fan's blades.  What the heck?!  We were about to call the police over a balloon trying to attack the ceiling fan.  At our defense, the ceiling fan was giving that balloon a good beating and making the loudest racket while he was at it.  If that balloon would have popped, would we have thought a gun had gone off?  Seriously!?  This is a true story, I could never make this up.  We lost a LOT of sleep that night from our adrenaline rush.  Holy cow, I thought were were going to DIE! 

Talk about over reaction.  But in all seriousness, what if it would have been an intruder?  Fer and I were not in agreement over what was going on.  I was convinced it was someone outside trying to get in, and he was convinced there was someone already in the house.  Either way, perhaps we should have called for help first.  Now I'm sure glad we didn't.  How embarrassing that would have been.  "Oh, sorry officer, our helium balloon from the party we attended earlier today got into a disagreement with our ceiling fan.  False alarm!"

Fernando tied the balloon down and came back upstairs.  We were wired!  We spent a better part of the night discussing what we should do if a situation like this (or unlike this) were to occur again.  I think, now, that we should have had a plan ahead of time, but we have never thought to talk about it.  At least now we have somewhat of an idea of what we might want to do in case of an emergency.  CRAP that was scary!  Fer and I lay awake while all three kids slept obliviously.  Thankfully our hysterical antics didn't wake even one of them.  I'm not sure what time we ended up drifting off to sleep, but I kept saying to Fer "are you still awake".  I'm sure driving him crazy!  I know it was just a silly balloon, but it made my head spin!

Life is NEVER dull around here.  Want to spice up your own life?  Sneak downstairs in the middle of the night and get your ceiling fan turned on and leave a helium balloon floating around aimlessly.  See what happens during the night?  How would your family react?

I need to mention that early the next morning, the very first thing Max did when he came downstairs was head straight to the switch for the ceiling fan.  As he turned it off he said to me, "MAMA! You can't have the ceiling fan on with the balloons around.  They might get caught in it!"  All I was thinking was, "Where were you last night?!"  And why didn't Fer just turn the fan off after the whole incident....we had more than one balloon floating around.  Ah well, you live and you learn.


Disclaimer:  We are not responsible for the outcome of your balloon/ceiling fan experiment if you choose to participate.  Please do not call us in the middle of the night, nor let any of your family members wake us if your experiment goes haywire.  We will not take responsibility for any damages caused to your home or yourself.  Thank you and may you have sweet dreams.  Good night, sleep tight, don't be scared of the things that go BUMP in the night!     

Have the BEST night's sleep EVER!