Rhinoceros are nocturnal

About a month ago we were up in the middle of the night with Nels for about an hour trying to get him to go back to sleep. He had been awakened by a noise outside his bedroom. We explained that it was probably some sort of animal. Don't ever tell your child that an animal made a noise outside his bedroom window. For the last month we have had to go into his bedroom every night before he goes to bed and listen for noises and often times we are awakened in the night to listen for noises. We need to figure out how to get him out of this awful phase.
Tonight I decided to try a new method and ask him what he was afraid of. I started with lizards. "Are you afraid of lizards?"I asked. "No, lizards don't make noise." "Are you afraid of raccoons?" He said he was and we then discussed that he was larger than a raccoon and didn't need to be afraid of raccoons. I asked him about skunks, and we figured he could run faster than a skunk, so he didn't need to worry about them. Then I asked him if he was afraid of rhinoceros. When he said he was I quickly said there was no way there were any rhinoceros in our back yard. He just as quickly said that the hill in our neighbor's backyard had lots of animals in it. Which is when I came up with a solution. I told him tomorrow we were going to go over to the neighbor's house and check out that hill in the backyard for animals that we might need to be worried about. He than said "Well, mama, rhinoceros are nocturnal."

Do you think we might find any rhinoceros droppings back there? Maybe a cave where the rhino goes during the day?

Butterflies in my stomach

Do you remember when you were a kid and your parents told you you were going to Disneyland, or on a big trip somewhere wonderful. I remember having a hard time sleeping the night before and I distinctly remember butterflies in my stomach. What a wonderful feeling!
I don't have that very often any more. Disneyland just doesn't do it for me like it used to. There are two distinct times I DO, however, remember having that feeling in the last several years. Once when I was talking about my husband either right before or right after we were married. The other times have been when I go into check on my two sleeping boys before I go to bed. Despite everything I might complain about on a regular basis, I love my family. They give me butterflies in my stomach.