Aaahhhhhhhh : )

Well, I feel like I have re-entered the ordinary world again after 48 hours of zombie existence. Ella had a bit of a stuffy nose. Not a big deal except she could not sleep a wink with it. So, neither could we. Thursday night was bad, as I reported. Friday night was worse. So much worse. I don't even really remember yesterday except feeling desperate last night at around eleven when Ella was already settling into her scream as soon as you put her down because she can't breathe through her nose and suck on her pacifier at the same time while horizontal routine. A third night of no sleep might have pushed me over the edge. But then, the tide turned. Paul went out to search in vain for some Vick's vaporub. (Of course we waited til it was eleven and we wanted to go to sleep to go get some even after knowing all day that's what we wanted to try. We were tired.) He discovered what I heard as I was tryyyying to lull Ella to sleep--a HUGE great horned owl hooting in the tree in our front yard. So other-worldly and cool. Ella would cry, ooooohhh, and then there would be a matching hoooooohhh. Cooooool. Even cooler was that when I came into our room a after he was home, the desperation on my face and in my voice, and bless him, Paul took his baby shift first, he was able to get her to sleep for real. We only had one little wakeup at 2 and another at 6. Lovely. Healing. It's amazing how much you need sleep.

Then this morning we got to meet our sweet tiny little niece, Izzy, who lives across the ocean, over Skype. She is precious! And then after church we whiled away the afternoon around Central Park downtown. Here are some shots from playtime: