Wednesday, December 7th

Last night we had a bit of a long night.  Audra (2) woke up sometime around two o'clock, hollering for daddy, and he went in to settle her.  (Me? I went back to sleep.)  I don't know how long he was in there, but I heard her calling again at around 3:40.  Mark was getting out of bed to go to her and told me then that this was the fourth (!) time she had called him since that initial two o'clock wake-up.  I was awake, then- and listening to all the goings-ons, and hoping she wasn't going to wake the other girls, and ready to assist if he needed me.  Then I heard Ella's voice, and Audra asking, "Daddy?  Will you please scratch my back?"  ;)  He did that, yes he did, at 4 in the morning, because that's the kind of amazing daddy that he is.

We all went back to sleep sometime in the 4 o'clock hour.  I left a little after 6 to exercise and when I got back, I came back to bed.  I then asked Mark for a recap of the night (in my foggy middle-of-the-night state I hadn't understood why Audra had initially called out-- Did she have a bad dream?  Was she sad/scared?)  As Mark was giving me the timeline of events, he said that after the second time he'd soothed Audra back to sleep, he went back to bed only to hear Adelia (3) calling out for him.  He went in to her- quickly- as to not wake Audra again- and Adelia asked him to find one of her stuffed animals that she likes to sleep with.  (I think he said no, he could not find that right now, as it was dark, and to please go to sleep.)  He went back to bed, and then Adelia began calling "Dadddddyyy"- quietly at first, then more loudly.

Then Mark overheard Audra, now awake, holler from her bed to Adelia: "He's MY daddy!"  Mark heard them bicker about that for a few minutes (Adelia replying, "He's my daddy!" and so on...) and then they quieted.  Mark and I were laughing about it this morning- it reminded me of the whole idea of getting your dance card punched- it was as if Audra was telling Adelia that she had daddy reserved for the entire night and Adelia could not use him.  Silly girls.  Wonderful husband and father.