Thud!

Arya often goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It usually wakes me up because she leaves the door open and turns the light on. But last night, instead of being woken by the light, I was woken by a thud. I sat up and saw her sitting on the floor of the hallway, legs out, back against the wall, very quiet and looking a little disoriented. I got up, went to her, and sat down. She was still quiet and seemed confused that she was on the floor. A few moments later, she scooted on her bottom a little bit and then asked me to help her stand up. I helped her up with some effort (she weighs almost as much as I do). She turned from me, walked toward her room and then climbed into bed, quiet the whole time. I followed her to make sure she was steady and coherent, then told her I would leave the door open. I went back to bed and listened for a long time, trying to keep the demons of “what-ifs” and “why” tamped down.

Arya can't get up off the floor without assistance. If she had been alone, she would have had to scoot out into the living room (she can’t crawl), up to the TV cabinet, pull herself onto her knees and then pull herself up. Probably terrified the entire time.

She’s okay now. Happily humming to herself and talking about how she’s going to bring all her various Uno cards for her and her teacher to play tomorrow.