Love From the Small Screen

We have a very small screen in our house. Its a little video baby monitor. The video camera part sits on the dresser in my son's room and watches him as he sleeps. It also watches him as he climbs out of his bed and goes out the door.

The teeny TV part sits downstairs in my kitchen. I can watch him flip and flop in his little toddler bed. I can hear when he rolls over on his Elmo doll because I hear, "Elmo Loves You, haha!" I can hear when he turns off his sound machine each time he gets up and decides to escape his room.

I expect to see everything that goes on in his room because that is the whole point of having the video monitor. What I didn't expect is to see was the sweetest display of love between my two children.

Last night I tucked D into bed, kissed him, told him I loved him, flipped on the sound machine and the vaporizer, and shut the door. I headed downstairs to load the dishwasher and clean up the kitchen. I was keeping an eye on the little video monitor screen because D has been frequently getting up and coming out of his room a few times before he finally falls asleep for the night - a pretty common practice for a toddler with newly discovered freedom from the crib. Typically, I spot him getting out of bed and I can dash up the stairs to stop him from wandering down the hall for too long.

I guess I was a little distracted with the dishes last night because when I spun around, I spotted my almost 5 year old daughter in D's room in her PJs ushering him back to bed. She pulled back the covers and helped him into bed. She then had to climb on the bed with him to pull the covers up and all around him. She kissed him and whispered to him. She then told him to stay in bed. And then she walked out of the room and pulled the door closed behind her.

I was captivated by watching the little screen. I didn't dare walk away to run upstairs and "assist" her in tucking D back in. I just sat there staring at the tiny screen portraying the sweetest love between my 4 1/2 year old and my 2 year old - best friends.

He must have climbed out of his bed and walked down the hall to her room. She had also already been tucked in and was trying to fall asleep. She took it upon herself to get up and tuck him back into bed all on her own. What a sweetie :-)

Then she came downstairs and tattled on him for getting up...