Anna is almost 13 years old and getting ready to start Middle School.  She is certainly not the little girl that we were taking to preschool just a few years ago.

This past week was Girl Scout camp out in the rural, humid heat of Tonganoxie, KS.  Anna was one of the older girls that helped “run” the camp.  Linda was out there with her Girl Scout troop and had several people comment to her that Anna was a really big help.  Yes, Anna is starting to grow up.

She and Emily did a joint babysitting job the other night.  They really enjoy that a lot.  It’s amazing how Anna can transition from little kid to small adult when she is taking care of another kid – absolutely awesome.

Spending time with friends in Omaha also showed how Anna can morph into babysitter, even when she’s not getting paid.  She naturally begins to shepherd and entertain the younger kids.  It’s nice to see the look of relief on the faces of the other parents – they’ve got a moment of reprieve.

A friend of mine was joking tonight that Anna will not want to be around me in about 2 months as she will be hitting that stage…I’m really hoping it doesn’t happen, because I’m really enjoying this stage right now.

I love you, Anna.  You’re staring to turn into a really nice young woman.

This has been an eventful week in the Featherston household.  Anna took sleepwalking to the next level – on nights that I was working night shift, of course.

I got a frantic phone call while at work from Linda.  In fact, the nurse had to come get me from a patient room to take the phone call (the first time this has happened since beginning work as a physician).  Linda had panic in her voice as she explained to me that Anna was up and running through the house and pulling blankets out of the storage, pulling videos out of the entertainment center, throwing the dog’s ball, and talking crazy.  Obviously, there wasn’t much I could do from work, but it finally ended after about 45 minutes.  Linda said it was like the sleepwalking scene from the movie “Step Brothers”.

It occurred again two nights later – again while I was at work.  Linda was ready to call a priest for an exorcism.  She did however contact the pediatrician the next day, confirming what I already suspected – there wasn’t much we could do.  It was hypothesized that she was probably overly tired and needed a little more sleep.  We had her take a good nap during the next day and things seemed better.  She even spent the night at the grandparents without any problem.

Until last night…

I about tripped going up the stairs as she was asleep on the stairs – like a cat curled up.  I picked her up and carried her back to bed (no easy feat considering she’s about as big as us now).  I then went to bed.  As I fell asleep my cell phone rang – it was Linda calling me from the basement because Anna was up sleepwalking again.  I hoisted her up over my shoulder and carried her back to bed.  Linda spent the next 45 minutes at her side carrying on full conversations with Anna asleep the whole time.  How extremely weird.

What’s more amazing is how many friends we’ve talked to that tell us that either they sleepwalked or their kids do.  It’s nice to know we’re not alone.

Finally, I confess that I did sleepwalk as a kid, but never to the extreme that Anna is.  Here’s hoping things calm down soon.