5.2

I jumped out of bed when I felt it rattling. My first thought was that someone was trying to get into the house. I could hear the windows shaking. I jumped out of bed and looked outside. Everything seemed perfectly normal. The best I could think of--in my half asleep state--was that it was huge wind. It woke up my wife and daughter as well. My two year old was calling us, so I went in to check on her. She thought she'd heard some thunder and was scared. "No, it's just the wind I told her." But then, going back to bed, I realized there hadn't been any signs of wind. When I had looked outside, everything was perfectly still. Then it hit me: St. Louis is close to a fault line and I definitely felt the bed shaking and heard the windows rattling. "We just had an earthquake!", I told my wife.

At the center it was a 5.2 magnitude! Happened @ 4:36AM. Centered 127 miles from here in Illinois. 3 miles below the surface.

Stall tactics

Maia has found many new ways to stall going to sleep at night. She utilizes many variations on a theme in order to get us back into her room after we have said goodnight. Just a few nights ago she came up with a new one. She called me into her room to give me a kiss. Then she asked to go out into the living room to give mommy a kiss. How do you say no to a request like that? After she had given mommy her (2nd) kiss goodnight, I put her back in bed. 10 minutes later she was calling me in again.

Me: "What is it Maia?"
Maia: "Give mommy a kiss on the cheek..."
Me: "Maia, sweetie, you already gave Mommy a kiss on the cheek. You need to go to sleep."
Maia (PAUSE): "Give Mommy a kiss on the forehead!"