thunder and the moosh. *giveaway*

Posted bycasey coombsPosted inToo lazy to label.

Comments Closed-Winner of the giveaway is Angela!  Congratulations!

If thunderstorms are not your thing, the Midwest is not the place for you.

You can feel thunderstorms here in your bones.

The lightning will wake you from a dead sleep and the thunder that follows causes you to flail so quickly your bunk mate usually scores a knee to the gonads or a slap to the face.

Once your heart rate is down to a non lethal level your mind wanders to that little kid sleeping all alone on the other side of the house. You wait for it.

*door creaking open* “moooooooom?”

As a kid I walked the curved staircase up to my moms room and curled up on the bare carpet next to her bed, even though she had a king I never dared get in with her. I also scared the snot out of her every morning when her feet hit me instead of carpet. (Sorry mom.)

When the moosh comes in I set up thunder camp on our couch (yes, THAT couch) and give her my softest blankets and pillow to cocoon herself up in. (Why don’t I let her in my bed? A. my bed is at least 4 feet off the ground. B. the moosh is huge, sleeps diagonal and is very kicky in her sleep. C. We’re not insured. See where I’m going with this?)

What do you do? Or what did you do when you were a kid? And if you tell me you were one of those kids that never ever got scared and needed your grownup I’m going to roll my eyes at you. Tell me your brilliant (or utter failure) solutions in a comment and you’ll be entered to win the last amazing bedtime kit from GoodNites, worth over $175 which includes…

  • 2GB Silver iPod Shuffle
  • Logitech Speakers
  • $25 iTunes Gift Card
  • Brookstone Cuddle Blanket (I own THREE of these.)
  • Patagonia Bag

Remember last week when I told you that entering the Bedtime Theater contest would pay off? Leave another comment that you’ve entered the contest over at bedtimetheater.com and you’ll have five extra entries into the giveaway ( I have ways of knowing so be honest.)

*****

Thunderstorms are like tofu, or mold. Sure they’re natural and can have their place in the world, but they still strike a bit of fear in me and give me pause. I will pick one random winner from eligible entries Friday, April 9th at midnight EST. You have until April 15th to enter the Bedtime Theater Grand Prize.

*****

I have partnered with GoodNites for the second year in a row to help make bedtime easier on everyone. I am being compensated for my participation in the Bedtime Theater program and not for promoting a product.

112 thoughts on “thunder and the moosh. *giveaway*”

  1. I always turned on the light. No matter if I was scared or it was storming, the light always seemed to help.

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  2. I sit up for the entire storm if I’m woken up. I get online and watch the doppler/radar to see where the storm is and if we’ve gotten the worst of it yet. I always do this, no matter what time I have to get up in the morning. 🙂

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  3. I am still afraid of storms and I am almost 43. Luckily my kids so far did not inherit that trait from me.
    I would collect all the cats and dogs that we would have in our house at any given point and make them all sleep with me. When I was in college I was home one weekend and we had tornado threats so I put on my biggest sweatpants and sweatshirt and stuffed my photo albums and all my valuables in the legs of my sweats and up my sweatshirt so that I would have them handy when we had to make a dash to the basement. Imagine the marks I had all over my body when I woke the next morning, still in my own bed, from sleeping with two huge photo albums under my shirt. yeah, now I have to pretend to be brave for the kids. However the chickensh*t dog wanders around whining and crying and trying to crawl up on our laps. She is a medium sized husky mix, so sorry Helga, you are on your own. 😉

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  4. I’m a big fan of the Weather Channel, to my husband’s disdain. I like to know when it’s coming, and how much longer it has to go once it’s gotten here. Luckily, my 2 youngest don’t care yet but my oldest has to come and sit right next to me at the first flash of lightening. I’m afraid my fear has rubbed off on him.

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  5. The thunderstorms don’t really bother me anymore, it’s the tornadoes that do me in. When I was a kid I would sneak into my parent’s room, wake my mom up and usually end up on the floor beside their bed.

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  6. If I wake up for a storm, I like to pull out one of my Madeline L’Engle books. My parents wouldn’t let me camp out in their room when I was growing up and scared, and the way that she writes has always been in a voice that is very comforting to me.

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  8. I used to have nightmares and awake myself with the screaming… my parents bedroom was right next door to mine, so one of them came thru the door and helpt me
    I got as far as to trowing myself out of my brother’s bed because I was too far from my daddy in my nightmare

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  9. I was quite possibly one of the worst children to share a bed with. I would lay between my parents and once I fell asleep I’d just spin like a top. It was impossible for them to sleep. So most of the time they’d come to my room instead and sit with me until I fell asleep. Luckily I’m a supremely heavy sleeper and I have a knack for sleeping through thunderstorms!

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  10. I would gather all my stuffed animals around me in a protective layer- least favorites by my feet, most beloveds by my head. And when it got really scary, I would talk to them.

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  11. We went through a phase where my (now 3 year-old) daughter was routinely climbing into bed with us at 3 a.m. So, we established a rule: if she wakes up and the sun is up, she can come get in bed with Mommy & Daddy. But if she wakes up & it’s still dark, she has to stay in her bed.

    It mostly works, except now if something (i.e., thunder) wakes her up, she stays in her bed and just yells, “Moooommy!!!” So I stagger down the hall, turn on her Baby Einstein Lullaby CD (which has a seriously hypnotic effect, even on adults; my sister, who has no kids, had me burn her a copy of that CD for nights when she has insomnia), and crawl into bed with her. I stay with her until she falls back to sleep. Of course, the trick is making sure that *I* don’t fall asleep there too, because I’ll wake up with a crick in my neck and aching ribs from a certain toddler’s kicky feet.

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  12. At least 2- and sometimes all 3- of our kids are excellent, hard sleepers, so they rarely wake up for thunder. If they do, they are allowed to sleep with us, or we sleep with them. Or we wait until they’re back to sleep and/or the thunder stops and take them back to their own bed.

    I didn’t get scared as a kid, either, except for those few times we were pulled out of bed and taken to the basement (during tornado warnings).

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  13. To this day, I lay there counting 1-1000, 2-1000 and so on, to see how close it is. If the thunder is right away, I jump out of my skin 🙂

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  14. I crawled in to bed on my mom’s side and she’d snuggle me. I was actually just thinking about this because my bed is SO high off the ground….it doesn’t need the boxspring….it has the support in the frame of the bed….I’m thinking about getting rid of it so that my bed is ready for scared snuggles. I loved feeling safe next to my mom. And I’m weeping…this could only mean one thing….I’m going to need some chocolate.

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  16. I usually like thunderstorms, I’ll admit. But I remember one in college–yes, college–that freaked me out so bad that I dragged my pillows and blankets to the interior hallway of the apartment and slept on the floor. When my then-boyfriend got home from class, he was rather perplexed.

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  17. I used to sleep on the floor at the foot of my parents bed. My kids tend to call for daddy, so that works out good for me!

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  18. Storms were the worst thing ever when I was little! Was I the only kid too scared to even walk out into the hallway to get to mom and dad’s room during a storm? I would wedge myself between my bed and nightstand on the side away from the windows, pull my knees up to my chest, and hide my face. Did it make the storm go away? NO, but I felt safe in that small space all curled up.

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  19. Rain helps me sleep. That is unless there is the bone rumbling thunder and cracks of lightning…

    I’ll never forget this as long as I live. I was about 8 or 9 years old and there was a terrible thunder and lighting storm around 4am. Thunder of course woke me up and light show kept me up. So I crept upstairs and was just going to flop down on the middle of my mom’s bed. It was pitch black in the room so I just walked slow till I got to where I knew the bed was and lunged.

    Too bad I forgot my mom had rearranged that week and her bed was no longer there.

    I hit the floor as more thunder cracked- mom screamed wondering who was in her house. I’m pretty sure she is still traumatized slightly over this.

    Needless to say, we didn’t go back to sleep till later.

    Now all it takes is a little cuddle from the hubby to calm me down a bit and go back to sleep. Till the lightning cracks and thunder booms again.

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  20. When I was younger thunderstorms always woke me up. I would run to my Mom’s room and sleep with her, until she got remarried. Then I had to sleep on the floor next to her bed. Then I was told I had to sleep outside their door. Finally I just starting crawling in bed with my sister. Now I still don’t like thunderstorms, but I have to act tough for my daughter. I ALWAYS let her sleep with me if a thunderstorm wakes her up. I want the company too!

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  21. One of our kids will sleep perfectly still without budging an inch. But not always. So we keep a pillow and blanket on the floor next to our bed and the kids know they can curl up there just about any time. It works gloriously for us!

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  22. My mom always sang “My Favorite Things” to me during storms – just like in The Sound of Music! It always seemed to work (or at least got me to giggle).

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  23. I like to count from the flash of lightening to the thunder and listen to it go further and further away. Having an activity like that takes your mind off the scariness of the storm.

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  24. I would count between the lightening and thunder too, so I knew the storm was going away.

    I don’t remember what I did when I was scared, but I DO remember my little brother and sister coming to MY room (not my parent’s room) and crawling into my full sized bed with me.

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  25. When I was a kid, I liked the low, grumbling kind of thunder. I started to get scared when the thunder and lighting cracked loudly. I would sit on the couch in our living room and cuddle with the family dog who didn’t mind the noises. This is a great option as long as the dog isn’t afraid of the weather too. My aunt had a dog who jumped in any car with open windows or inside the drier a few hours before a big storm hit.

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  26. I slept with my sister and we would find all the stuffed animals(even the ones we didn’t like much) and pile them all in the bed and “ride out the storm” all of us in there together.

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  27. When I was little I loved sitting with my brother in the living room watching the rain and counting the seconds between the lightning and the thunder. I’ve never been scared of thunder, but a big boom can still make me jump out of my skin if it catches me off guard!

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  30. I would carefully walk into my mom and dad’s room and gently poke my mom awake. She never let me sleep in her bed with her, but she’d get up and take me to the bathroom. I guess she didn’t want to get peed on? And then she’d lay down with me in my bed for a little while and sneak back to the comforts of her own bed.

    What do I do now? I watch Sesame Street until I deem it safe enough to race to the kitchen to get a drink of water and run back to bed.

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  31. I grew up in Ohio and was terrfied of thunderstorms. Whenever they would come around, we would make hot chocolate and popcorn and then sit on the screened in porch and watch them blow over, huddled together, sometimes under blankets. If it was too cold, we would watch movies. It calmed my fear of storms, and I was actually excited when they would come around. I fully intend to start this tradition with my son.

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  32. I used to sleep on the futon at the foot of my parents bed. Only problem was my brother (4) regularly slept there too. One time he ran in and hopped on the futon in the middle of the night while I was on it. He had the most terrified look on his face and bolted out of the room when he landed on me.

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  33. My mom used to bundle me up and we’d go sit on the porch and watch the storm. It was a small teeeeny tiny town in the middle of nowhere, so even from our front porch on Main St, we could watch the storms roll in over the fields and back out. I think she thought, well, if I can’t sleep I might as well face what scares me.

    My favorite memory of her and I is sitting out on the porch swing, that she made, with my cash register on the ledge and my blankie wrapped around us both – watching as the storm wailed. We stayed up till dawn that night – saw the clouds break and the sun come through.

    I can’t wait until I get to sit through storms with my family.

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  34. I would try to make it to my parents’ bedside in as few steps as possible, including one huge leap off my bed (because the thunder would wake up the monsters living underneath my bed, waiting to grab my feet, OF COURSE).

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  36. I don’t live in the Midwest, but as a kid our whole family would sit and watch the storm from our large french doors. My parents made it an exciting thing for us. I guess it was a ‘reverse psychology’ technique that my parents were trying out on us. Well, it worked for me, because I love to watch thunder and lightning storms! But I realize that the storms you get are much much worse! Thanks for sharing!

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  37. I live in the Upper Midwest. Definitely not the same as Indiana. Remember 5 years ago the tornado by the speedway during the indy 500? yeah, I almost died. well, my upper midwest piddly rainstorm self almost did.
    Indiana has a whole other breed of rainstorm.

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  38. I have loved thunderstorms since I was young, but it still doesn’t mean I don’t get a bit scared from time to time; especially with those shake the bed claps of thunder that wake you up and scare the living daylights out of you. When I was a kid, I slept on the floor next to my parent’s bed. Now, I snuggle a little closer to my husband.

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  39. I would crawl into my parent’s bed (one of them usually ended up back in my bed or on the couch….they usually did that or slept on the floor anyways. Neither sleep well.) As I got older, I’d grab hold of my stuffed lamb and a book and try reading until I fell asleep.

    And I’ve tried entering the GoodNites contest so many times, but it always freezes at the Subscription page. 😦

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  40. i would always go down to my parents bedroom and depending on how many of my siblings made it down there (there’s four of us) i would go in their bed or on the floor

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  41. Well, it’s not that I wasn’t scared of storms when little, I didn’t hear them. See, I wear a hearing aid, but not to bed, so I only woke up if the lightning was really bad. I think I just pulled the blanket up over my eyes. Mom will probably say I also hollered at her, but for the most part, I slept through the thunder.

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  42. I used to get scared at night and go to my parents room. I would never wake them up though. I would wait a few minutes to see if they felt my presence and wake up. I guess my presence isn’t that great! I usually ended up back in my bed…still scared.

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  43. Flashlight. Kid sister. Under the covers in my own room, shivering together until the storm passed. That’s how I rolled back in the day! Today with my own kiddo, it’s giving up bed space to snuggle back to sleep. Works like a charm every time.

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  44. I’ll let the kids climb into bed with us. After a while, my husband will usually retreat to the couch. Even though we have a king, those little bodies take up a lot of room and generate a lot of heat.

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  45. I still do the Poltergeist thing 20+ years later: clap of thunder start counting until lightening strikes.

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  46. As a child- when i would wake up from a mightmare or the storms- i would try to calm my breathing and listen for my Father’s snores… the loud window shaking snores. Oh- it gave me a secure feeling- that my father was home and i knew he could fix anything… just the fact that he was down the hall comforted me…
    Now that im the “adult”- I let my children sleep with me- i let them wiggle their little diapered bumms in to my curves so that they may be comforted. because i know there will be a day- all too soon- where they will no longer want to. And although I sometimes awake with some heat-seeking feet down the back of my pajama pants- or an elbow in the eye- or, this mornings- a scab being picked off my hand… i love it… every day i awake sourrounded by my Babies… 😀
    (i suppose it helps that my husband works grave yard so i have a King sized bed- all to myself…well- all to the 3 of us… LOL…)

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  49. I would snuggle up with my blankets at first. When I got older, I would curl up in a chair by the window and watch (because that made it seem so much easier to handle).

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  50. and I entered the bedtime theater contest last week…do I need to do another story? Because, I am TOTALLY not creative in that way. 😛

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