Sweet Monique

Needless to say, by the time we were in Iguacu Falls we were pretty tired. We were on the last leg of our trip and we were pooped. Our first night there was New Years Eve. Our room was amazing and right by the pool. Normally, a room right by the pool would be fantastic, but this night was party night and they were having the big New Years Eve party at the pool. We spent the evening and late into the night listening to horrible covers of American songs. The music was so, so loud. Luckily, the kids were able to sleep through it, but Kirk and I were in and out of sleep in between songs.

FINALLY, I heard the countdown to midnight. Thank goodness! The "singers" started having longer and longer breaks between songs and I started to fall asleep.

A few minutes after drifting into sleep the phone rang. As I answered the man on the other end said, "Hello Mrs. Lima? We have your daughter Monique here at the front desk and she is crying."

"WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"It's OK we will bring her to you right away."

"Um, OK!"

I punched Kirk to wake him up and ran to the door of our room. As I opened the door a gentleman came down the hall holding Monique. He handed her over to me, assured me that she was fine and went on his way.

Well, she might be fine but I was not. I was totally freaked out! I tried to talk to Monique but she had already crawled back in her bed and was fast asleep. I kept trying to wake her up, but she wasn't having it. All she could say was..."I just woke up in the hall."

After a few minutes of trying to talk to her she got up, went to the bathroom, crawled back in her bed and went back to sleep.

I was still freaked out!

I ran upstairs to Kirk's dads' room and rang his bell. He didn't come to his door. Finally, I used my key card (all our rooms used the same card) and went into his room to wake him up. I explained the situation to him and said we needed to go to the front desk and find out what really happened and since I don't speak Portuguese he needed to come with me!

Here is what the front desk explained to us:

The hotel had a nursery set up in the two conference rooms right down the hall from our room for all the parents going to the New Years' Eve party. One of the Nursery workers saw Monique standing in the hall in a daze, thought she belonged in the Nursery, and took her in to sit with the other children her age to watch a movie. After a few minutes she started to cry. They could not console her or get her to tell them her name so they took her to the front desk. Again, they tried to find out her name and were just about to go out to the "fiesta" to see if anyone would claim her when she finally told them her full name. At that point, they checked the files and compared her with the copy of the passports they took of all our children and determined that, yes, she did belong to us. That's when I received the phone call and they returned her to us. All in all, she was probably gone only 20 minutes.

ONLY 20 MINUTES!!!!!

I didn't know my child was gone for 20 whole minutes? Yes, the mommy guilt was taking over big time. As I thanked the front desk gentleman for his help and my father-in-law and I walked back to my room, I realized for the first time, Monique had been sleep walking. There is no way she would have walked out the door (I always leave the bathroom light on when we are at a hotel just so they don't get "lost") without screaming her guts out as soon as the door shut if she were awake. And she definitely would not let someone wrap her in a blanket and take her to the front desk without having a total fit.

She was sleep walking. Scary, scary sleep walking. And, I didn't hear the door open because the "singers" were so loud I couldn't hear anything. She must have started crying because she had to go to the bathroom. (At home, she will sometimes come in my room in the middle of the night crying because she needs to go to the bathroom but is disoriented.) I told Kirk that I don't know who is watching over our little Monique but I am so grateful she is still with us. At least now we know she is a sleep walker and we will be much more watchful of her in ANY hotel.

After moving any furniture that was not nailed down in front of the door and a lot of crying, I finally fell asleep out of pure exhaustion; all the while thinking about how grateful I am for all my many blessings.

The next morning.....

Monique didn't remember a thing!