May 30

It was a lazy Saturday around here, which was fine by me. I woke to the sound of Caleb and Daisy running and giggling in the front yard around 7 am; thankfully, Chris was out there with them. I still have no idea what they were doing.

Chris took the kids on a trip to the hardware store, and once the little three were down for naps, I took Caleb grocery shopping with me so that Chris could start working on his final paper for grad school. Hooray that grad school is almost done! After he finishes this paper, I just have to give him up for two weeks in August, and then he's finished.

Caleb asked to wear his cape shopping, and of course I let him. You can't tell, but it's a Cardinals cape that was part of the giveaway at last year's Superhero Night. He paired it with a Cardinals muscle shirt and Cardinals shorts. That's my boy. So many people stopped and complimented him on the cape, and he was really pleased. Right before we got into the van after our final stop, he climbed up on the cart corral and said, "Look at me, Mommy! I'm flying!"

Of course Eli was awake when we got home; when I'm home, there's a 75% chance he'll take an awesome afternoon nap. But every time I try to leave after putting Eli down for his nap, he wakes up 10 minutes later. It's like the kid has a sixth sense that tells him when I've left the house. Actually, now that I think of it, I think I've read somewhere that babies can actually smell their moms that well...

When Lily woke up from her nap, Eli and I went in to get her. She wanted snuggles, though, so I put Eli in her crib and pulled her out to cuddle.

Eli loves to be in Lily's crib. His feet are a blur because he was happily kicking and cooing.

Daisy, meanwhile, took a long afternoon nap. 

Chris snapped this picture with his cell phone when he snuck in to grab some closet shelves that needed to be cut to size. Isn't she sweet? And I love her new sheets. 

Now that I see this picture, I remember that Chris' sister Grace had some very similar sheets when we visited her last year. 

(That's 8-month-old Lily. Isn't she hilarious?)

I guess they're not identical, but still. Daisy and Grace must like the same things. Great minds...

So. Daisy was asleep, everyone else was awake, and Chris was across the street where our neighbor was cutting our closet shelves. It was time to start dinner, but Eli was fussing. Of course I grabbed my wrap to put him on my back but...

Lily freaked out. She desperately wanted to be on my back, and wouldn't take no for an answer. Poor baby. It's hard getting kicked out of your position as the baby of the family. Luckily, I watched a few videos about tandem wearing the other day, so I grabbed my size 6 cherry lace wrap, and got to work.

Et voila! Problem solved!

For the short term, at least. Eli was not super-comfortable in his part of the wrap, and I felt like I needed to keep one hand on his upper back most of the time. Also, it is not considered a best practice to use one wrap for two children; ideally, one would use a separate carrier for each child. Also, I didn't center my wrap well, which is why there is such a long tail between Eli and Lily's legs. On the other side, the tail was just a nubbin. Oops. But I was dealing with two screaming kids and it was my first time, so I call it good. Also, no one is screaming in the picture, and in fact, Lily is pretty darn pleased. 

But I was attempting to make dinner one-handed with 35 pounds of child strapped to me, so it was kind of challenging. Luckily, Chris came home maybe ten minutes after I wrapped the kiddos up. Lily did not want to get down, and I was about to wrap her to Chris' back when he suggested the swing. Wrapping and swinging are Lily's two favorite things, so she was happy to get down.

Once Lily was outside and happily swinging, I was able to do what I wanted to do in the first place: wrap Eli on my back. 

Ten minutes later, he was sound asleep. Babywearing FTW.

(In case you're wondering, Mom, FTW = For The Win. It means I'm winning because I can wear my baby. Wouldn't you agree?)