Another long day.

They never become easier. Both Dan and I had been up since about six this morning with Ellie. Being the over excited five year old she is, she can hardly sit still for a minute. So as you can imagine, she really doesn't like to sleep much. When she wakes up she gets up straight away and comes into our room. Sometimes she sees how tired we are and cuddles up with us for another hour or so.

But not this morning. She had come on to wake us up, complaining about how hungry she was. I guess I can't blame her for waking us. I mean, she didn't know that we had only had about five hours sleep at most. I guess I had Dan to blame for that one. He was, let's just say. He wouldn't let me sleep. He spent most the night whimpering in my ear trying to get my attention. I had given up on attempting to get any sleep and um, yeah, that happened. He was seriously begging for it, I couldn't leave him like that all night. So we were pretty tired from, that, when we woke up.

So now, at nine in the evening we were both completely exhausted. We'd spent the day at the park with Ellie, honestly because letting her run wild does kinda drain the energy out of her. The only problem with that is Dan and I spent the day chasing after her to make sure nothing could happen. So now we were sitting here on the couch with the TV on in front of us. Neither of us were watching anything, it was just kinda on for background noise. Anything to try keep us awake. Id put Ellie to bed about half an hour ago then flopped down on the couch next to Dan.

I rubbed my eyes tiredly as I stared at the bright colours on the TV. Why is everything so bright when you're tired? I groaned quietly before leaning against Dan. He grumbled a little before wrapping his arms around me. A small smile tugged at my lips as I looked up at him. He had his eyes closed while he wore a smile on his face.

He looked so adorable.

"You can't fall asleep yet"

He opened his eyes, his gaze meeting mine. "I'm not. I'm just resting me eyes"

A small laugh escaped my lips as I heard his excuse "Yeah right"

He pouted slightly before opening his eyes fully and looking at me "I won't. You know I can't sleep sitting up"

"What about that time you feel asleep during-"

"It was so boring it made me fall asleep. That's different" he said, attempting to sound annoyed. Before we knew it we had matching smiles on our faces as we laughed. I didn't really know why we were laughing, we just were.

We stopped eventually, both smiling at each other. Moments like this where we just sat looking into each others eyes were what I lived for. I think it was because I could actually see the love in Dan's eyes. It amazed me really. Amazed me that someone as amazing as Dan actually loved me.

"Hey, guess what" I said softly, my eyes not leaving his.

He smiled, guessing already what I was going to say. "What?"

I looked away for a moment before smiling softly "I love you" I whispered as I pressed my lips against his.

He smiled, kissing me back gently "I love you too-"

"Daddy! There are monsters in my room!"

We both looked towards the door where we knew Ellie was bound to appear. Sure enough, Ellie rushed into room looking for us. When she set eyes on us she pouted, crossing her arms across her chest.

"You're having cuddles without me?" she shrieked, obviously not actually upset. She had developed this strange sort of sense of humour. Actually, it was pretty much the exact same as Dan's.

"It's bed time, sweetie. I though you were asleep?" I asked, holding an arm out to her.

"I can't sleep in there!" she exclaimed, making her way over to the couch and attempting to climb between us "There are monsters in there"

"Monsters?" Dan asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah…" she grumbled, looking up at him before snuggling into me. I smiled softly, moving a hand to gently ruffle her hair.

"Ellie, there are no monsters in your room"

"There are, I saw them"

"Oh really, and what did they look like?" Dan asked.

"Like…um…monsters"

Dan and I both laughed at her. "Come on then. Lets get you settled in bed and dad will get rid of the monsters"

I stood up, stretching my arms above my head before offering Ellie my hand. She gladly took it then reaching out for Dan's hand. Dan looked from me to her with a small smile tugging at his lips.

"Come on then, it's monster hunting time"

We walked into her room, Dan letting go of her hand at the door. I got her settled in bed pretty quickly. She tried to tell me that the monsters were going to eat her if I left. I really couldn't help but laugh at her. The things she comes out with.

"Okay then. Come on monsters, get out of here" Dan said doing his silly little act he had to perform every so often with the 'monsters'.

"You have to throw them out the window" Ellie said as she peeped out from under her covers.

"Okay then" he then proceeded to pick up the 'monsters' and walked over to the window. He opened the window then pretended to throw them out. "There we go, the monsters are gone"

"They might come back" Ellie said softly, coming out from under her covers more.

"No they wont. Me and daddy will stay outside your door to make sure they don't come back" he explained as he walked over to us and crouched down beside her bed.

"Come on now. It's bed time" I said softly, running a hand through her hair.

"But daddy-"

"No buts missy. Bed time" Dan warned, tucking the blanket under her chin. "Do you want your nightlight on?"

"Yeah"

"Which one?"

"The cow one!"

"Okay honey. Sleep tight-"

"And don't let the bed bugs bite"

"Dan"

"Right, sorry. There's no bed bugs Ellie" he said with a small smile before placing a gentle kiss to her forehead.

"Goodnight baby girl"