It is the eve of our 'big trip' to Seattle for a little get-a-way. My Mom was sweet to offer that we spend the night at their house since we have to leave so early to catch our flight the next morning. This is practical for two reasons. One, we don't have to wake and feed all the children at 4am, so that we can get to Grandma & Grandpa's in time to drop off the kids and catch our flight. And two, we don't have to wake Grandpa & Grandpa up at 5am and leave them with three very awake little ones with no intention of going back to sleep anytime soon. So, this was a great idea for all.
However, there was a small little item that Mom 'conveniently' forgot to mention until we headed off to bed. Mom says "oh yeah, I forgot to tell you that you might hear our little Mockingbird outside your window at night". We really thought nothing of it...that is, until we couldn't fall asleep. Actually, let me digress and explain the situation a little further.
The boys were sleeping peacefully together in one room while Chloe slept in the pac-n-play in our room. We head off to bed, not heeding the warning that Mom just gave us about our little night 'companion'. We were having a hard enough time trying to be super quiet and tip-toe in the pitch dark so as not to wake our sleeping daughter; then add to that Chuck's attempt to set his watch alarm (a feature which he's never used before but swears it will work and wake us up in time) in the dark. Since I'm very skeptical about the reliability of this little watch alarm, I opt for back-up and grovel around in the dark, ever so quietly of course, looking for the little alarm clock I brought.
You might be wondering why we just didn't set that one in the first place. Well, we would have if it didn't sound like a tornado alert that's trying to wake a whole town. All we wanted was to be conscientious of all those sleeping around us, that we were willing to risk not waking up at all. I actually considered just staying awake all night...little did I know my own prophetic abilities.
Okay, so it's been like 20 minutes and Chuck finally has his little watch alarm set and I have the blow horn set (but under pillows - like that will tone it down). We attempt to fall asleep, only to hear Chuck's little alarm going off. Its only been like, 10 minutes since he figured out how to set it and convinced me that it would work. So, he tries again as I, ever the thoughtful wife, solve his lack of light problem by holding down the snooze bar on the blow horn that glows a pretty blue color.
Ahh, problem solved...now we can get to sleep. Not. Problem number two arises. It is our sweet little Chloe. She is such a fitful, loud, stinky, noisy little sleeper. I think between the two of us, we got up 51 times in a 6 hour time frame to either put her paci back in or look to see if she was awake because it sure sounded like she was.
Simultaneously to the 'thrashing sleeper' (as we so lovingly refer to her), we start to hear a beautiful melody right outside the window. It actually sounded like the bird was chirping into a microphone. The melodies were beautiful and unique, but not something to put you to sleep.
I dozed off a few times long enough to wake up to dig the blow horn out from under the pillow to check the time. Come to find out, it was only 30 minutes later than the last time I did it. Then comes the hard part, trying to block out the 'thrasher', the bird/owl, and the fear of not waking up in time to try to lull myself back to sleep for another 12 minutes before the whole cycle starts all over again.
