October 25

We have a busy weekend ahead of us, so the kids and I did our grocery shopping today.

At Trader Joe's, both Caleb and Daisy got to push little shopping carts, and Caleb even picked certain items off the shelf and put them in the cart all by himself. He was pretty proud of himself. We got home just as Lily was ready to eat and sleep, so I brought all of the groceries in to the kitchen table (the big kids tried to help, but the bags were too heavy for them!) and left Caleb and Daisy to their own devices while I tended to Lily.

I returned five or ten minutes later to find this:

He actually ran to meet me in the long hallway as I was leaving my room, and excitedly told me, "I did a big pile! I did all the groceries in a big pile and I even did the wine and I was really really careful and I did not break it or drop it and I did the big pile!"

Yep. Caleb had unloaded every. single. bag. into a big pile in the center of the table. 

And he was SO proud of himself. I took a picture with my phone and texted it to Chris, and Caleb was so concerned about what Chris' boss would think about his work. Even now it makes my heart hurt in that bittersweet way to think about how excited my little man was that he had "helped" his Mommy while she was taking care of his sister. What a good boy he is.

And then I might have forgotten to take pictures until bedtime.

It may have had something to do with the fact that I spent the afternoon baking 3 double-batches of this chocolate zucchini bread, producing 5 dozen muffins for my freezer.

And then I made pizza, because it's Friday night Pizza night.

And then I made an apple pie because Caleb asked for one and I just happened to have a new bag of gluten-free flour from Costco that I was itching to try out.

But as I put my pie in the oven and I heard Chris bathing the kids, I realized that I had forgotten to photograph Lily today!

Luckily, she was happily waiting for me in her room, fresh, clean, and in jammies.

Can you tell in this photo that she's playing with her hands? She's all about her hands right now. Staring at them, playing with them, sucking on them... she loves those hands!

She's also developing a few bald spots in back. It's one of the worst parts of having dark-haired children: the inevitable bald spots that come between three months (when they start looking around more) and six months (when they can finally sit unassisted) look so much worse when there's dark hair involved! And the bald spots always make me feel like I must be a neglectful mom. I mean, if I held my child alltheitme, then she wouldn't have bald spots. How dare I put her down! Or allow her to sleep lying down, instead of in my arms!

"That's crazy talk, Ma."

That's Lily's "talking" face. I can tell from her eyes that she's bright. Girl has a lot to say!