November 25

Caleb had the day off school today, so I got to have all four kiddos home. Hooray! Unfortunately, Eli decided he likes waking up at 5:30 am, and did it again today. Fortunately, it seems to work pretty well to put him down for his morning nap at 7 am. (I know. It's ridiculous. As soon as I typed that, I though, "This is crazy." But it works.) He napped from 7:20-9:20, and by then all the big kids were up, dressed, and had eaten breakfast, which meant we had the whole morning to do whatever we wanted. In this case, it was a trip to Target. Once I was ready to leave, I looked around for Eli. 

He was nowhere to be found.

It had been maybe a minute and a half, and he was gone.

Finally I found him, and I quickly realized that Daisy had found him first.

That kid either didn't notice there was a sparkly red crown on his head, or he didn't care, or he liked it. He played happily in his crown for several minutes, and the kids thought it was hilarious. The christened him "King Eli".

 After all of the fun was over, we went to Target. All four kids, and me. And right as we got there, it began raining - hard. I parked next to a cart corral that happened to have a three-seater kid cart, and began drying the cart off with a blanket, in the rain. Once it was mostly dry, I loaded one kid at a time into the cart, handing each an umbrella. We were a funny sight, and it took me a solid ten minutes to get the three big kids in the cart and Eli in the ring sling. In the rain. The kids put their umbrellas together and created a shelter from the rain, and it was surprisingly effective. Finally we got out of the rain and into the safety of the store. Daisy had a few issues, but overall they were great shoppers. I love that my kids do such a good job in stores. 

When we finished shopping, the kids realized that our diaper store is really close to Target, so they asked to go. Eli has his 10-month birthday on Saturday and I wanted to weigh him, so I agreed. As we parked, I remembered that there was a babywearing meeting at our diaper store today, at the exact time we arrived. What a happy coincidence! The kids played with toys while I played with wraps, and everyone was happy. (Amber, at least three people came up to specifically ask me about your ring sling. It is a crowd favorite.) (Lily was not happy. She came back to find me and told me there were too many kids in the play area. I ignored her. She can deal.)

We came home in time for lunch, and Eli was ready for his second nap of the day. I put him down, baked breakfast cookies for the kids to eat for lunch (does that make them lunch cookies?), and then put the girls down for their naps. As soon as they were down, Eli woke up. Of course. But he was happy and well rested and played independently for quite a while.

Which allowed me to take this picture of my big boy. He is such a sweet little bear, and I sure do love him.

Eventually I told Caleb to go outside and play, but he didn't want to play alone. I told him to go check on Daisy, and he did - several times. But she kept on sleeping. Finally, I peeked in at her. This is what I saw:

Out cold, in her s'mores hoodie and flowered leggings, no covers, belly and ankles exposed, snuggling her Elsa doll. That doll isn't even remotely cuddly, but I love how Daisy has Elsa resting in the crook of her arm. That girl.

And then Eli was due for a nap around 3:30, but he decided that was a lame idea and stayed awake. Which meant that I was able to capture this little video of him on his hands and knees, practicing his rocking back and forth. He is so close to crawling and getting to seated on his own and pulling up! Also, he weighed 18 pounds, 3.5 ounces today, which puts him in the 17th percentile. Way to go, Eli!

I wore him on my back while I finished making dinner, we ate dinner, and Chris gave Eli a bottle and put him to bed in his crib while I read to the big kids. There was no fussing - just a very tired, very hungry baby who went to sleep like he's supposed to. Hooray! I will take 5:30 wakeups any day for a baby who sleeps in his crib in the evenings! Let's hope it sticks.