Birth Month - Day 27

If you've ever had the pleasure of spending the night with Andrew, chances are you saw him sleepwalking.  Andrew was a sleepwalker for as far back as I can remember.  When he was around 5 he would sleeprun - screaming that Matt was after him and he needed to hide.  That also happened occasionally when he was awake.  He would also say amusing things that made no sense like, "What about the horses?".  Other times he would pick at stains on the carpet thinking they were pieces of paper or something that needed to be thrown away.

Three of my most memorable sleepwalking stories of Andrew are:

1) Matt had some friends over, specifically to watch Andrew sleepwalk.  They even armed themselves with weapons in case Andrew tried to attack them - of course an attack never happened, but the boys had a good laugh.

2) Andrew ran outside and when Matt went to retrieve him, Andrew took off down the street.  I had to coax him back inside.  No idea what made him run outside.  Matt can actually tell those two stories better.

3) One night, after everyone had gone to bed, Andrew bolted down the stairs and out the front door.  The pounding down the stairs woke me and when I heard the door opened I realized it was Andrew sleepwalking.  By the time I got to the door, he was nowhere in sight.  I grabbed my shoes and started walking the block.  I found him down the street.  He was completely groggy but I convinced him to walk back home.  When I got him home I realized his feet were a little bloody from running through the yard and stepping on the sweet gum balls.  I patched him up and put him back to bed.  The next morning he had no recollection of the events but knew his feet hurt.

That was typical for Andrew's sleepwalking - he never remembered any of it and you could often get him talking about the wildest things.  It was fun most of the time, but also scary when he ran out the door.  Doctors never could tell me specifically what caused it, but always said he would likely outgrow it.  He never did.