Harrison Avenue // H.S.

Dill Pickle and the Deer Named Kitty

[Ellison]

I have always been easy to wake, but since becoming a mother it is a sense that has elevated to an entirely new level. It isn't that I am a light sleeper per se – Harry crawled into bed sometime after I closed my eyes last night, and I didn't even stir. I also never notice when Harry starts to hog the duvet, never waking from a chill, never waking up at all. Instead, while sleeping, I always just move closer, so he has no choice but to share. It's almost like second nature for me to gravitate towards him anyway.

If someone needs something of me while I'm in mid-slumber though, whether it's Harry looking for a cuddle or Dylanne who just needs a glass of water in the middle of the night, it doesn't take much to get my attention.

"Mummy," I hear Dylanne's voice, whispering to me as I feel her small hand on my cheek.

My eyes flutter open, sleeping on my side as I face out to where Dylanne is standing right next to the bed Harry and I share. Our bed here is relatively low to the ground, so Dylanne's little face lines up just right to be in view of my eyes that are quickly adjusting to the dark room. Her hair is a mess, curling and sticking up slight toward the back. The color of her hair has lightened since she was a baby, but it still matches closer to Harry's hair rather than my own.

"Mummy," she repeats again, her voice soft and tired. "Can't sleep."

Dylanne is in her matching pajamas that she picked out just before bed, deciding on the light purple set with sunset clouds printed all over, rather than the yellow ones with rubber duckies. She's also holding her deer stuffed animal named Kitty that Harry got for her when he was last on tour. Yes, a stuffed animal deer named Kitty, who is a boy according to Dylanne. Dylanne and Kitty have become inseparable in the last few months and she takes him everywhere.

Harry was a genius when he got Kitty because he decided to buy two of the deer stuffed animals, immediately hiding away the doppelgänger version. I think he just had a gut feeling that Dylanne would grow an attachment to the soft plush deer and he knew that if we were to ever lose him while traveling from place to place, it could become an impending issue. So, the lookalike is stashed in our closet in New York for safe keeping, ready with a story about how Kitty traveled across the world to reunite with Dylanne.

I'm not surprised that Dylanne has made her way into mine and Harry's bedroom because she's done it the last two nights as well. The two of us recently joined Harry at our London home, as Dylanne and I had spent the last month in New York, and she's a little thrown off by the time change.

Adjusting to different time zones around the world is something that has almost been ingrained in Dylanne. She's been crossing time zones, becoming a world traveler, since she was about eight months old. So, for most of her life – and I often think that she handles it better than I do. It might be because her concept of time is entirely different than my own. She's nearly three now, but her responsibilities primarily include eating snacks, going to a playground whenever possible, befriending any person or dog that's relatively her size, and drawing pictures of snakes (her current obsession because the squiggle is easy to draw).

"Mmm, Dilly," I say with a quiet sigh, moving to my elbow as I continue to lay on my side. "That's alright."

It's difficult for me to say much more at first, still waking up as I let out a yawn. I can feel Harry next to me, close as his body is pressed against mine, his hand on my stomach. I move slowly, hoping not to wake him, holding onto his hand gently as I move it from its rest over me. Still asleep, he rustles in the sheets for a moment, readjusting as I sit on the side of the bed. His eyes stay closed though and I motion to Dylann a quiet shh as a reminder to let him stay this way.