"Beep!"

"Beep!" said Baylor, as he pushed along his new toy. He loves to beep whenever something else does; the microwave, the toaster oven, the sliding door on the van ... it doesn't matter what it is, he just loves to beep.

"Beep!" he exclaimed, beaming with delight.

"Geez, that beeping is loud for a little toy," I thought to myself. "I wonder if it has a volume button."

"Beep!" he shouted, straightening out his arms and pursing his lips like he always does when he's really geeked about something. He smiled at me with true joy in his eyes, and I knew we had purchased a winner of a toy. He ran to me and wrapped his arms around my neck and shoulders, then he yelled, "Beep!" into my ears.

Then I woke up. A Braxton Hicks contraction pushed Paco into my bladder with urgency, and I started to make my way out of bed for my nightly trip to the bathroom.

"Beep!" A loud beep rang out through the house.

That's weird, I thought. My dreams don't usually continue that vividly after I've woken up. I wish Baylor would turn off that toy. Wait, it's 2:40 in the morning, he shouldn't be playing with a toy. Wait, I didn't hear him say beep, just the toy. And his new toy doesn't beep; it doesn't even have batteries.

Oh crap.

Yeah, it wasn't a toy. It was the carbon monoxide detector and the batteries were going dead. Ugh, why on earth do they always go dead in the middle of the night?! I have never, EVER had one start beeping during the daylight hours.

After using the bathroom, I schlepped out of our room and eventually downstairs to see which fire/air safety device had gone dead. Upon discovering the source of the beeping, I was shocked that both Big and Little B were still asleep; that sucker was loud!

Though not as loud, I found out, as when you put the new batteries into it. Seriously?! Does it have to announce the fact that it has new batteries? Since it obviously knows people were sleeping (thus its penchant for going dead in the dark of night), it must know that I was exhausted and sensitive to all noises big and small. I swear, I was tone deaf for a few minutes because of it.

But hey, I got to have a nice dream of my son because of the beeping, and now I know for sure that one of the air safety devices in our house is fully charged. Gotta look at the bright side of things this Monday morning!

Have a wonderful day!