Elf

Our eleven year-old daughter insists that she sleeps only six hours a night. This is not completely unbelievable since her father sleeps about five, but she’s just a kid. She needs her sleep. She goes to bed between eight and nine, perhaps in keeping with our “parents need time alone” wisdom more than anything else, but she rarely falls asleep right away.

Last night, she made this claim for the hundredth time, adding as she always does, that she is only pretending to sleep when my husband kisses her goodbye before leaving for work at some ungodly hour (when it’s still dark outside, yet supposedly morning). So my husband finally said, “Prove it.”

This morning, as he does each weekday morning, he went into her room to check on her. When his eyes adjusted to the darkness he saw that she was just lying there, eyes wide open, looking at him with satisfaction. She waved and said, “See, I told you.”

Her sleep requirements may be those of her father, but that sassy chip is all me.

Oh, and elf is eleven in German as I just found out this morning. She is a perfect eleven.

Comments

C. August said…
>>she was just lying there, eyes wide open, looking at him with satisfaction. She waved and said, “See, I told you.”

Ha! That is awesome. I can totally see my daughter doing that one day. Except that she is a heavy sleeper and still gets nearly 12 hrs of sleep a night (granted, she's not yet 6). But the "See, I told you" thing is certainly in my future, in whatever context!
July 21, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Lynne said…
She cracks me up. I'm surprised I didn't hear him burst out laughing.
July 21, 2009 at 1:29 PM
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