April 14

Today was a good day.

Before we even did anything this morning, Lily was so adorable that I had to get out my big camera for an impromptu photo shoot. She asked me to put two braids in her hair, chose a special outfit, and even put on some sunglasses.

I know. First picture, and I'm already dying from the cuteness. But it gets better.

Boom. I don't think a child has ever existed who was as cute as Lily is. 

Then Eli wanted in on the picture-takking.

Just kidding. He actually wanted Lily's sunglasses.

I think he just wanted to do whatever we were doing. That child.

*sigh* 

I love this girl.

And then Daisy had preschool, and later Caleb had speech, and I remembered to pack lunches for everyone to eat in the van on the way to speech. Chris had a work event tonight that meant he didn't get home until after the kids were in bed, so I was on my own for the afternoon and evening. I was fine with that, except... Caleb was scheduled to have a training run, and I really didn't want to do it while pushing the younger three kids in the BOB. It's possible, but not pleasant.

Luckily, my mom was able to spare an hour to come out and stay at the house while the little three napped and Caleb and I ran. 

It was a GREAT run. We ran out an extra minute before turning around, and ended up running farther and longer than we ever had before. It was warm enough to be a little bit uncomfortable while we ran, and the run was challenging for us. Still, it was great.

Mom had to leave as soon as we got back, and the girls were sad to have missed her. 

Eli and I tried out today's carry: Back Wrap Cross Carry. We didn't like it.

Also, this happened:

Eli has definitely had a developmental leap in the past few weeks. He is trying to say more words and doing more things, and this is one of his new tricks. I can already tell that he is going to be a mischievous toddler!

I made an easy dinner that the kids gobbled up, and we had lots of time to spare before bedtime. Our solution? We went through the McDonald's drive through and got four hot fudge sundaes, then went to the park and the kids ate them while looking out over the lake.

(Two things:

1. I am sorely feeling the lack of a great ice cream shop near our house. We have great places that are 15-20 minutes away, and we have fro-yo places really close, but we don't have a fun, local ice cream place nearby.

2. I didn't eat a bite of any of those sundaes. I was pretty proud of myself!)

After they finished, the kids played on the playground for fifteen minutes.

Eli may not be walking yet, but he is all about playing on playgrounds these days! This park had a smaller play area specifically for toddlers, and Eli was all over it. He climbed up, went down the slide, crawled through the tunnel... it made me so happy to see him playing like a big kid! However, it is really hard to monitor four children at a playground. It is much easier when Eli is strapped safely to my back. While I still wear Eli quite a bit, I think he has fully entered the "play on the playground" stage. I love it.