Book Club at Midnight

...well, it wasn't midnight, exactly...but it was after bedtime.

I put the girls to bed last night, and headed downstairs, as usual, to catch up on some news.  The monitor in the basement stays on, and I didn't hear anything -- also, as usual -- for a good 15 minutes.

Then I thought I heard something.  And then I heard it again.

The girls were talking, by then a full 20 minutes after I'd left them for bed.

That's not the way it works in our house.  I tell them goodnight.  They go to sleep.  Right???

I'll admit I was aggravated.  I didn't hear them bickering -- which occasionally is the case, especially if one wants to go to sleep and is hindered in some way by the other -- but there was definitely conversation happening.

As I neared the top of the stairs outside their room, I paused.  I decided to listen to see what was the cause of the not-sleeping.  I crept just outside their door and put my ear to their door frame.

"...that's what I thought, too!"

"...and you know the part where XYZ?  I didn't really get why ABC..."

"...and I pictured him making a really mean face!  Hahaha!"

"...yes, that was cool!"

I opened the door very slowly.  B gasped to A, "It's Mommy!"

"Are you having a book club meeting?" I asked them through a big smile I didn't even try to hide.

"YES!"  They both giggled.

I told them how happy it made me to hear them discussing a book.  ("We do it all the time!" A told me.)  I gave them both big hugs and kisses, reminded them by then it was FAR past bedtime, and that they needed to conduct the rest of their meeting the next day.

I don't think I heard anymore discussion over the monitor.  But I went to bed smiling myself at the sweetness I got to witness.