January 23

I took pictures off my camera tonight and found these two that Chris took this morning, long before I was awake:

It's clearly long before I woke up because our east-facing window is pitch black; no sunrise to be found.

And the children are eating their first breakfast of homemade gelatin gummies. 

Maybe an hour after this, they came stampeding into my room to climb into bed and snuggle with me. After 10 minutes, they scampered off to play, and I climbed into the shower. When I was dressed, I emerged to find Caleb wearing a Superman shirt, complete with cape, and Daisy dressed in her Wonder Woman costume, including her indestructible bracelets and tiara. And this was all before 7:30. Sheesh.

Lily was uncooperative about naptime - AGAIN. After an hour and a half, this happened, AGAIN:

Apparently all she wanted was to be snuggled up with me in bed. Or, if not, at least by then she was too tired to fight it. This picture was after I removed her from my shoulder/neck/armpit area, which was soggy with her drool and sweat. 

Part of me hates this, and wishes she would sleep in her crib for naps, by golly!

Part of me loves this, and savors the fact that I get these last few months to devote to letting her be my only baby.

Part of me regrets this, knowing that it's only a short-term fix and that when Yoey arrives, we may have some issues.

And part of me is just too tired to care, and is thankful to get a nap any way I can.

Also, Lily is super cute when she wakes up in bed with me. There's no slow, groggy waking for her. She goes from sound asleep to wide awake and exceptionally cheerful, and she is so happy to be snuggled up with me. Really, who can turn that down?

Chris thinks maybe Lily just likes our flannel sheets. Perhaps I should buy her a flannel crib sheet? Look at those freshly-woken rosy cheeks. So sweet!

She woke up just in time for us to go get Caleb off the bus, and once we got home all three kids went to play in the back yard. I ran in to work on dinner, but ran back out when I heard Lily shrieking.

Don't worry, Mom. She wasn't hurt. She was shrieking because of this: 

Caleb had pushed his little picnic table up to the swings and used it as a step to climb into the baby swing. Lily was furious. 

Daisy is too big for the baby swing, but even she was peeved. Caleb, meanwhile, was pretty pleased with himself.

After I took pictures, I helped Caleb out of the swing, put Lily in, and spent some time pushing the kids on the swing set. They were so, so happy.