Nion? Niger? Nanda?

Sometimes, I have a hard time falling asleep. Other nights, I pass out from exhaustion as soon as all the kids are asleep. On the nights I can't sleep, my mind starts racing in a hundred different directions, thinking of things I need to do tomorrow, didn't do today, did fifteen years ago and still feel like a dork, etc.

After I've beat myself up over embarrassing incidents from my dating years, I try to keep my mind on happier things (like Baby) or I play little games. One of my favorite games is to choose a topic and go through the alphabet. When I was pregnant, it was usually baby names. I've done flowers/plants, TV shows, famous people, and other stuff I can't remember.

So the other night, I can't sleep. After reliving some idiotic things I did in youth group, I decide to name animals, starting with aardvark. Everything is going fine...until I get to the letter N. Can't be are hard as X. It's a common enough letter; surely finding an animal won't be too hard, right?

Wrong.

Can't think of one and it's starting to drive me nuts. I even woke up the Man and asked him to name an animal that begins with the letter N. And just to show me how strong his mental capabilities are, he says one while half asleep and really not interested. His choice? Nightcrawler. Okay, that works. I finish the rest of the alphabet and try to sleep.

But I still can't.

Nightcrawlers aren't really animals...maybe I can think of something better. I try to remember that scene in Phenomenon, where John Travolta undergoes all that intelligence testing and the tester asks him to name animals alphabetically. Can't remember what he chose, though. And then I start thinking about an episode of Dora the Explorer - of all things! - where they help an aardvark track down his animal buddies, all of whom are missing from their respective letters in the alphabet. (I don't want to ruin the ending for anyone who hasn't seen it but they're all hiding in the Z!) That one was a nightingale. Okay, that's a little better. Birds are a better choice than worms.

Finally, I fall asleep.

Just don't tell Dora that her show actually helped me.

Can you think of an animal that begins with the letter N?

**EDIT: I just looked it up on YouTube, that endless font of useless and forgotten knowledge. John Travolta's character named Newfoundland, which is a breed of dog...a very, very large dog. So even his genius character had problems naming an animal. I don't feel so dimwitted now.