Day 10 - Under

This is how I find Ella when I wake her up in the mornings. She has always loved to bury herself under the blankets. That little pink bear face belongs to Emily, the bear she built in Gatlinburg. Emily has an official title and a very important job: Bumble Bee Snapper. She protects Ella from the bumble bees that buzz her while she's sleeping.



Ella's Nest



My child has an irrational fear of bees. She also has a history of vivid, anxiety producing dreams about things getting in her bed with her. The latest is bumble bees. One night last week, she woke me up telling me, "The bumble bee buzzing sounds just distract-es me while I'm sweeping." I made her use the bathroom, because a full bladder makes the dreams even worse, and tucked her back into the bed with Emily. I told her that Emily likes to snap bumble bees and she would protect her until morning. The next morning when I asked if any more bees bothered her, she said, "No, Emily just ate them all." Now she gets tucked in beside Ella with her own special blanket every night.

You can't see her, but on the side next to the wall, the baby Maggie Beth is sleeping. She also has her own blankets to sleep in under the big blanket. Getting the three of them situated for bed every night is no quick task.

Then morning comes and we start the process of getting them out of bed. Unless it's the weekend, they don't like to get up. It's quite a process. This is the intermediate step: wallowing on the rug with Sniffy, the pink, shiny blanket (who also gets tucked into bed with her).

"I'm up!" she insists. I disagree.

Eventually, she does get dressed, usually while I'm loading up the car to leave.

And, that picture of her on the rug with Sniffy threw me into a time warp because it reminded me of this picture.

3 month-old Ella hiding from the morning light.

That's her, buried under Sniffy (pre-naming) when she was still sleeping in the co-sleeper beside my bed. She pulled the blankets over her head when I turned on the light to wake her up. She's much bigger now, but some things never change.