Watching deer at 4 AM

There is a new advantage to being up at 4AM in our neighborhood- I get to deer watch! We live in a area in between two wooded areas and the deer have kept of residence, even as the city has grown. Each morning and early evening you can see deer walking from one area to another.

This morning, I got up at Luke's first cry at 4 AM and we walked downstairs, and I took a right through the dining room (my shortcut to the kitchen, I know I need to post some photos/video of the house) to get a bottle going for the little guy ASAP in the kitchen.

There are two large windows in the dining room and I walked right by them and as I peered outside, there were two does causally walking through our yard. I took a moment to watch them in awe, they are very graceful animals and felt a sense of calm, even though I was extremely tired. (Luke has been doing this new thing were he cries for about 30 minutes the moment both Kyle and I are ready to go to bed- NOT AWESOME).

Anyway, as I got the bottle ready, Luke and I went back to the window and watched the deer move through the yard, a small, young doe looked right at us in the window- took several step closer to the house, and then proceeded to follow the tracks of the other does.

St. Louis is the largest city I have lived in, really the first city I have lived in. In the past we have lived in smaller rural areas or small towns, this however is a CITY- I mean Target is 1/2 mile away and so are two grocery stores, Starbucks and Lowes- it is a shoppers paradise! And it amazes me the wildlife we have here, makes it seem not so urban.

Not that I appreciated the owl hooting the other night, at first I thought it was Luke, the owl started hooting after Luke stopped crying, so I went for 30 minutes of a baby crying to a hour of a owl hooting. So with all this lack of sleep, Luke and I took a nap upstairs today while Kyle and Ella went to the church Easter egg hunt.

Up tomorrow- Ella begins soccer tomorrow after preschool. She is excited! Soccer is at 1PM so we will pick her up, go have lunch, get changed and then head to soccer practice. Afterwards it will be home to nap and I need to get her signed up for swimming lessons and then we are watching a friend's kiddos tomorrow night so she can go out for her birthday with her husband (who works with Kyle). Kyle plans to meet me at their home to help out and take our kids home- might take the long way home so they will be in bed by the time I get home ;) We will see.

Bad Dream

It was a interesting evening at our house. First I was like the Top Chef's and zipped out a balanced meal in 30 minutes or less, maybe I should be Rachel Ray. Once we wrapped up dinner I cleaned up the kitchen and Ella and I went to a friend's house for Ella to play and the Mom's to catch up and do some MOPS work. I was smart and called Kyle on the way home to get the bath water started and Ella walked in, stripped down and played in the bath tub for a while. We later took turns reading books and Ella and I worked on a page in her princess sticker book (Thank you Mindy!).
Ella went to bed easily, only requesting once for me to come back into her room, to put her hair in a pony tail, thought it was old and uncomfortable, but who am I to judge the thoughts and actions of a almost three year old!

I watched some pointless TV for a hour and helped Kyle pack for his trip.

Around 12:30 I heard Ella crying and went in to check, she was still asleep, I tucked her back in and made sure she was ok. Once she turned over and seemed alright I went back to bed. Well, 10 minutes later, Kyle was in her room and she had tears and everything- must of been a bad dream, so she came back with Kyle and slept with us, makes me thankful for a California king bed on nights likes these.

The one good thing to note was that she was up earlier this morning with me turning on lights, and showering, so we were to daycare and work right on time.

I am hoping tonight for happy dreams and thinking Dora and Diego might help get her mind in the right spot, though I am not sure what would cause the bad dreams, I am pretty stern on what she watches before bed.

Who knows.