January 21

Chris took my car (and all of its car seats) in for an oil change today - hopefully the last oil change we will ever give it, since we will need to replace it with a minivan in the next month or so - so the girls and I were stuck at home today.

After we returned from getting Caleb on the bus, I decided to get out my camera and document our current bus stop look. It's not a good picture, but I thought I should document it for posterity, especially because Lily and I often get double-takes from passing cars. I like to think it's because of my stunning good looks at 8:30 in the morning, but something tells me there might be other factors at play.

I've been rocking this look since it got cold out. I put Lily in my ring sling, directly on top of my growing baby bump. My belly acts as sort of a ledge for her. Then I put on my big old puffy coat (a remnant from college days) and zip Lily inside. As you can tell from the picture, the zipper is getting quite strained lately. I like to think that it's because Lily has grown so much, rather than my belly. You'll note, after all, that most of the straining seems to occur over Lily's back, rather than over my belly. Lily always insists on wearing her Olaf hat, and then I use the velcro on my coat to close up the neck gap between us. We both stay pretty warm, and I really like that Lily's legs and feet are covered up by my coat, too. Even on the days a few weeks ago when it was near zero degrees in the morning, Lily never complained. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to keep this up until Yoey arrives in March, and after Yoey's arrival that it will be warm enough that I won't need to worry so much about Lily's warmth. Of course, then I'll have to worry about how to get Lily safely to the bus stop and back; it will either be by training her to walk with us, or by wearing her on my back and Yoey on my front. I'm not sure which will be faster.

I love that Lily and I look like a two-headed monster, and I love how thrilled Daisy is to be in this picture, wearing her coat, dress, sweatpants, Princess Anna socks, and beaded satin shoes. Daisy and I are quite a pair in the morning!

Things were fine for a few hours, but soon I reached a point in my day where everything I touched failed. A recipe didn't work, and then - just like yesterday - Lily refused to nap. For two hours I tried to get her down, and finally I gave up and  brought her into bed with me.

Amazingly, for the second day in a row, it worked like a charm. This time, Lily was barely even touching me. She just wanted to be next to me. There was very little fussing before she fell asleep, and we managed an hour and a half nap together before Caleb came home.

The kids played happily in the back yard while I continued to fail at everything I touched. I  burned the kale chips for dinner, forgot to brine the pork chops, seared the chops a bit too much, remembered much too late that Caleb had homework due tomorrow, and was late to Book Club because I was trying to help him. Not my best day.

Luckily, I got a snuggle with my sweet girl, quality time with my friends, and now the day is over. Thank goodness.