July 11

I woke up this morning with no baby, but with a painfully swollen throat and no voice.

Seriously?

Luckily, it got better as the day progressed, and now I'm just froggy-sounding, with a runny nose. Let's hope this passes quickly, so I can birth this baby!

After two days filled with family and friends and late bedtimes, today was our day to hang out, regroup, and get back on schedule. Caleb used the opportunity to play with all of his new toys.

Did you know Batman also wears fire boots and plays golf? That Bruce Wayne is a talented fellow.

At first, I let Caleb play with real golf balls. After one whizzed past my head and bounced off the window behind me, I made him switch to whiffle balls. Real golf balls are for when Daddy is around to supervise (and take the blame for any broken windows!).

Daisy was pretending that this pink whiffle ball was ice cream. 

This was an unexpected surprise. Our friends Caleb and Hannah gave Caleb the game Zingo for his birthday. We opened it up and played it last night with some older friends, and today Caleb and Daisy were crazy for Zingo!

After yesterday's all-day fussing and screaming and bickering, I was delighted to find that Caleb and Daisy happily played Zingo - with no intervention or instruction from me - for over half an hour. In fact, when they woke up from their naps this afternoon, the first thing Daisy said to Caleb was, "I want to play Zingo with you!"

I'm treasuring these quiet days, because I know that soon things will be not-so-quiet! We're ready, Baby!