My First Sleepover

I have a guest writer for this post, my son Ian. He loved that I wrote about his spider-scare, so he wanted to write a story himself. He chose to write about his first sleepover, which is perfect since I was going to write about it anyway. Waiting for the right moment to let go of Ian for a night has been hard on me, and harder on him. He’s been asking to have a “real” sleepover for a few years now. He slept over in his buddy Reece’s hotel room in Vegas while his sister Carol Linn babysat them, but that’s not the same thing, I’ve been told.

I guess I’ve been waiting because I wanted to make sure he was ready. I didn’t want him to be all excited about a sleepover, but then call me crying to pick him up. I didn’t want him to be embarrassed or to feel like a failure. And truth be told, I wanted to make sure I was ready. It was only three years ago that he was in a hospital bed after his brain surgery, and he was holding on to me for dear life. I couldn’t rollover in that small bed without him screaming for me not to leave him. In the years since, I’ve only NOT put him to bed a dozen times. Unless it’s impossible, I try to get home by bedtime. I enjoy that time with him, and he with me.

This past weekend all the essentials were perfect: a good family, Ian’s maturity, and my readiness. And now, here is Ian’s story, mostly typed by him with a little help from me.

This is Ian. I am seven years old, and I just had my first sleepover with my friend Jake. I felt a little nervous about whether I was going to cry “Mommy!” or not when I was going to go to bed. I felt scared that I was going to have bad dreams. I didn’t know what his house was going to look like, if he was going to have a bunk bed…but he didn’t.

I had to pack my pajamas, bathing suit (for swimming the next day), my goggles, Wii Wipeout (Jake told me to), a nunchuk, and my spider-monkey (I love him!). I was excited to get to Jake’s house. I gave my mom a kiss goodbye, and we started to play. We played Wipeout first, then play dough. Sometimes we didn’t get along: I wanted to play something, and he wanted to play something else, but most of the time it was fun.

When it was time to go to bed, I called my mom. I said, “Hi Mom. I just wanted to say goodnight.”

“Are you ok?”

“Yes. I’m ok.”   

“Good. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Then we decided that we should sleep in a tent, and when it was in the middle of the night, I woke up Jake to sleep in his bed. I didn’t feel comfortable in the tent because it was really hot.

Then I couldn’t find my spider-monkey. I awoke Jake to get my spider-monkey out of the bathroom. Then I finally could sleep.

When we woke up, we had breakfast and then started to play Wipeout again. I was so happy I made it through my first sleepover.

I am too, buddy. I am too.

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