November 1

How on earth is it November?

It's even more surprising because today was a beautiful day - sunny and in the seventies. Just how I like my Novembers! We skipped church this morning because we all needed a low-key morning at home. Chris took the kids to Costco, I edited some photos, and then we headed to a birthday party. I left my camera at home, so I have no photos of Dean's fabulously foxy first birthday party, but it was really great.

However, a lunchtime party means naps get pushed around. Plus Daylight Savings Time ended. Yikes! Eli and Lily went down for their naps around 2:30, and Daisy chose to snooze on the couch. While everyone napped, I finished editing photos, then went out to take more pictures! This time, it was our friends Dan and Jen and their four kiddos. I got lots of lovely pictures of them, but it seems that the days I work on pictures for other people end up being days that I don't take pictures of my people. So it goes.

I got home in time to load everyone into the van for small group. Eli was pretty uncooperative (perhaps due to the fact that he had only napped for a total of an hour and a half today?), so I spent most of the time corralling/entertaining/bouncing/nursing/wearing him. I did snap a few photos on my phone.

Eli really liked our hosts' family of faux pumpkins. 

He also enjoyed their real pumpkins, but the faux ones were more accessible.

Thankfully, our group has four babies who are about the same age, so no one really noticed that Eli was being uncooperative.

Speaking of thankfully... November 1 means that it's time for our November tradition: the Thankful Tree! I put it up last night, and this morning we all put our leaves on. We are trying to let Lily participate this year, though she doesn't really grasp the concept yet.

It looks sparse now, but by the end of the month it will be full. Each person is assigned a color; you can see our labeled leaves at the bottom of the tree. Caleb is red (duh), I am green, Daisy is yellow, Lily is orange, and Chris is brown. Today Caleb was thankful for video games and our country, I was thankful for sleep, Daisy was thankful for Eli, Lily was thankful for Mommy, and Chris was thankful for me. Every day we will each add a new leaf to the tree. It seems like the first week or so is the easiest, and after that it gets harder. We have so much to be thankful for!

Right now, that baby monitor in the bottom corner of the picture is something I'm thankful for. At Eli's 9-month checkup, our doctor and I brainstormed some ideas to help us get some time away from Eli in the evening. My most urgent wish was for Eli to go to sleep in his crib at bedtime and sleep for a few hours so that both Chris and I could have time without him. Since Eli refuses to sleep in his crib at night, our doctor suggested nursing him to sleep in our bed, then sneaking away. I wasn't comfortable leaving him alone in our bed since there's no baby monitor in the room. We have bed rails on either side of the bed and a headboard and footboard, so Eli can't accidentally roll out of bed, but he is mobile enough that he could totally climb over the barriers if he was awake and left unsupervised long enough. Our doctor looked and me and said, "Why don't you get another baby monitor?"

Duh.

So that night I ran out to Wal-Mart and bought a monitor for $19.88. 

And you know what? The plan worked. Chris and I get an hour or two each evening, and I get an hour in the morning. Yes, it's awkward having two baby monitors (one for his bedroom and one for our bedroom). But it is so worth it. 

My prayer wasn't answered the way I expected, but it certainly was answered! Hooray!