Parenting, homeownership and doorbells

As though I wasn't having enough trouble at night. I was head upstairs last night at about 4:20 and was halfway up the stairs when the doorbell rings. LOUD, LONG... Who could possibly be at my door at 4:20 in the morning. And seriously? What do I look like? Stupid? I wasn't planning on answering it. That's what Daddy's are for! But I pause on the stairs in fear. Then I run to the top of the stairs to open the nursery door, E's room overlooks the driveway, which has a motion sensor flood light on it. So I wanted to see if the light had been activated. In my panic stricken moment, I forgot about the baby gate, and as I fling the nursery door open I walk into the baby gate, making a HUGE CLANGING noise, of course scaring myself and E in the processes, not to mention stubbing my toes and shins! Well, back to the motion sensor light, it was not on. That seemed odd.

Oh well. I go on my "merry way" to trying to get E back to bed. Thinking maybe I can just give her the pacifier and rub her tummy. She has other plans. So we settle into nurse. I never heard Daddy get up to check out the doorbell, so I'm still feeling a little scared as I sit in the nursery. Perhaps if I didn't have to go back downstairs I'd feel safer. I could just sleep in the guest bedroom. That would solve my problem. So anyway, E finishes her snack and I put her back in the crib. And as I tiptoe out of the nursery. The DOORBELL RINGS AGAIN! Loud, LONG! Now I'm totally freaked out. I'm standing on the landing in the dark looking down at the front door, thinking, it's dark, if someone is at the front door they can't see me. But I'll stand VERY STILL. Finally, I do hear Daddy get up. Lights start getting flipped on downstairs and I hear Daddy go to the back door. Now that the lights are on, and Daddy is up. I am feeling MUCH braver. So I come downstairs and actually look out the front door. But on my way down the stairs, the doorbell rings. AGAIN. And while I stand in the hallway trying to talk to Daddy, it rings AGAIN. Well if anyone didn't see this coming... the doorbell was BROKEN. It was ringing itself. It wouldn't stop.

Daddy is standing in the front of the house in his PJs ripping the doorbell off the front door so he can take the batteries out. And then, not feeling as though this was sufficient enough to resolve his aggravation with the issue, he proceeds to go out the backdoor and rip the doorbell of the backdoor as well, and pull the batteries out of this one too. The good news is this DID seem to resolve our issues. Unfortunately, all this doorbell ringing definitely woke E up. SO I now have to trudge back upstairs to get her back to sleep.

When I finally return to bed Daddy is still trying to fall back asleep, spending an hour in the dead of night with a ringing doorbell isn't good for anyone to sleep through. I said to Daddy "I was so scared! I didn't know who it was." And Daddy says "I thought it was the recycling guys coming to tell me I hadn't cut the cardboard down into small enough pieces".

So I guess that's the difference between Daddies and Mommies, Mommies worry about horrible things, and Daddies worry about the recycling. So I guess we're going to keep the doorbells down for the rest of the week. Not like anyone important comes here anyway. And anyone I do want to actually see, usually just walks right in!

That's all for today... I hope everyone has a quiet night and no dysfunctional doorbells. And really... who dropped the pacifier.