Dear Diary,
The night terrors have been bad, very bad, since we moved into Mr. Corinthos' penthouse. My poor Michael wakes screaming several times a night. In order to stay near him I've given up the guest room and I'm sleeping on the cot in Michael's room after all. That would make Mrs. Corinthos happy, if she ever came into Michael's room.
Perhaps it's for the best, as the guest room is right next to the master bedroom, where screaming of a different nature goes on all day and night. Aie! No wonder my sister left this job and went straight into the order of Sisters of Our Lady of Slatterns. If it weren't for my son I would join her.
Michael might be less frightened at night if his bedroom looked a little less like a tomb. With all that dark wood paneling and lack of light, the entire apartment is simply funereal. I suppose it suits Mr. Corinthos, but it's no environment for a child.
I asked Mr. Corinthos if I could paint Michael's room a more cheerful color. Maybe a happy mural of animals like zebras and elephants would cheer him up. "The couch is made of calf leather," he replied, "so just tell him he's sitting on a dead baby cow's skin. That ought to cheer him up."
At least I think that's what he said. I won't make the mistake of asking him to repeat himself again.
In brighter news, Mr. and Mrs. Corinthos pay so little attention to us that keeping Lupita in the house has been easy. So easy that it's kind of ridiculous. They stay in their room, ah, sleeping until well after noon every day, so we have plenty of time to take Lupita for a walk in the park. If they happen to be home when we get back, I just tuck Lupita into my jacket. I'm not sure what I would say if they asked why I was wearing a jacket in August, but that would require them noticing I exist. So I'm not worried.
We've had to abandon the sticker calendar, after Michael got into it last night and covered every inch of it with scary stickers. "Every day is a bad sticker day now," he sobbed.
Instead we're trying something new today. Instead of a calendar, we wrote a wish for something good to happen, and place it at Our Lady of Slattern's feet. Michael asked me to write "I wish that Mumbly Daddy and Stare Daddy would kidnap Scary Lady Daddy again and go away for a whole year!" Amen to that.