second sleepOver. They arrived at noon, Alyssia had a dental appointment in Chico at 1. Between noon and "bedtime", we did a thousand things. small things. ordinary. nothing amazing. but a Thousand. She just turned 4. Still is comforted by a "sippy" of milk at bedtime.....which, at home, she now gets for herSelf. So, we watched as dark came...sitting outSide, we watched and listened as Talkie went to bed...going foot by foot up and over the Tree Branches to her highest twigs and settling there, all the while talking to herSelf. it got darker and the bats came, swooping. Quieter and Quieter and she missed her Mom. Her house, where there are electric lights and street lights and a constant small flow of commotion on her street...people, moving, doing things. Dogs barking. Cars. Here, only DARK. She missed her Mom. But she said it was her bedtime. I kept saying well, maybe soon. But it became clear that it was that Sippy thing of Milk she was needing....that signals the end of a day's worth of doings. So we filled the thing, chose our pillows, settled in. Holding hands. and it wasn't long at all and the Milk was gone and she still Missed her Mother and it was still Very Dark. Very Dark. and Very Quiet. And we were both pretty wide eyed.
So i said...OK. Let's Go. and got up and got out the headlamps that we had remembered about and ordered from our Auntie Amazon a week or so ago, and i asked her if she was ok with it and she had no answer so i said OK Let's Go and we set out. She said she was afraid, and got her long curved stick from earlier in the day but then she kind of likes Drama, so i said well lets just go anyway and see what happens and the first thing we saw were two moon eyes per Goat GLOWING where they had settled in to lie in the road for the night, all those glowing moon eyes and then Jack's and then on, Tay running ahead, and more moon eyes in the brush that turned out to be Puppy and we talked about how night is Puppy's favorite time of all and as we walked she waved her long curved stick and this pic is of that. down and down to the end of the road where we sat and turned off our headlamps and just were there...in complete Dark ness.
