The sweetest thing

I gotta say.... When you have your baby girl up on your shoulder, and her @25 pounds feels light as a feather because she's snuggled into your neck just right, the blanket you slaved making wrapped lovingly around her and grasped tight to her face, it's like having a small piece of heaven in the palm of your hand. I love putting Morgan to bed at night. She has a bath, runs around the house for a while during "naked baby" time, her bare tush air drying and her head tucked into the corner of her bunny towel, plays games and sings songs, gets dressed in her jammies, and then settles down for a book before bed. When the time is right I hand her over to her daddy for some snuggles and some kisses, and then I pick her up and settle her in that sweet spot on my shoulder, and we walk away towards her bedroom. She'll chirp "bye bye" and wave to her daddy, as we round the corner near the laundry room on the way to her crib. I'll then walk over and stand on the pastel colored chenille rug we have lying in front of her crib, and I'll stand there, swaying side to side, sheltering this little soul as I did when she was in the womb, talking to her through my heart as I slowly rock her to sleep. After a minute or two I will slide her across my chest until she is lying in my arms, and I'll slowly lie her in her crib, feet first, one vertebrae at a time, until she comes to a stop in a cocoon of blankie, with her baby doll beside her on the mattress. Then I'll lift up, cover her up, and pull the gate slowly, pausing for a second before the resounding crack of the gate as it locks safely into place, her guardian for the night against the boogeyman and her impending curiousity regarding all things labeled "dangerous". She is usually awake still, and as I creep to the door and turn around to grab the knob, she'll raise her hand, wave, and say "bye bye" as I latch the door and quietly walk away.

No matter how my day has gone, or how much of a struggle it has been to juggle working and raising that sweet little lamb, our bedtime ritual brings me back up, and reminds me why I desired to become a mother in the first place. I walk away from her room smiling, grateful for the alone time, yet also anxious for a new day, when I can walk in to her waking squeals, and do it all over again.

Morgan's very own pink buggy

Morgan's new ride

Bangs.

Babysitting

Just a quick note to share my babysitting adventure on Saturday night. Raegan came over at 7:30 so that her mom and dad could go out for a nice bite to eat and talk amongst themselves. Morgan had already been put down, so I figured it would be an easy 1 1/2 hours. Steve was at work, so it was just Raegan, the Coop, and myself. She showed up asleep, so I just left her in her car seat. Why mess up a good thing?

15 minutes later she woke up, smiling. We played for another 45 minutes with some of Morgan toys. One of them was her first baby doll, not the one she got for Christmas from G&G Fiero, but her very first one that I got her when she was 4 months, of which she has had little interest. Raegan was sitting up and I was lying behind her, using my body to support her upright. I set the baby right in front of her, and watched her face. She stared and stared at the baby's face, and then this great big smile broke out, and she started laughing. Then she grabbed the baby... and promptly stuffed her nose in her mouth. It was pretty funny. She'd pull her away and look at her, and then try and gnarl of a chunk of baby face. It was pretty cute!

Suddenly, out of nowhere, she started to get upset. I tried her binkie. No. I made her a bottle. No. I changed her diaper. No. I held her up on my shoulder. No. I turned her facing out. No. I laid her on the floor on her back. No. She flipped over. NO. We wandered the halls. No. Then I noticed she wasn't the only one crying. I waited a minute hoping Morgan would fall back to sleep....... No. By this time, Raegan has worked herself into a regular fit. Oh.... YES. We went into Morgan's room, and you could tell that Rae woke her up, and she was a bit disoriented. She had already been down for the night, so didn't even know Rae was visiting. I picked her up. Mind you, I still had R in my arms. I put M on my shoulder, and held R in the crook of my right arm, facing out. BOTH were crying. We paced for a minute, and M settled down. I set her down on the couch. R is still doing the mad cry. Then M started crying again. I picked her back up. I then set R down for a second. BOTH started doing the mad cry. Poor M isn't big enough to understand what is going on, and little R is just plain mad at me. So, I rearranged. I put M back up on my shoulder, held Rae facing out. And we paced. For 10 minutes, I packed 40+ pounds of screaming baby up and down my hall. When one would settle down, the other would be hollering, and that would make the quiet one upset again. They fed off each other. After 10 minutes, I started to laugh. I couldn't think of what else to do. Morgan would go back to sleep if I had three minutes to hold her in her room and settle her down. But Raegan was so mad at me that she was started to gag on spit bubbles, so I didn't think she'd make it 3 minutes before she got hysterical. So we paced.

In between screams Raegan would yawn, so I knew she was just tired and had gotten herself too far past the point where she could calm herself down, so I thought I would limit the stimulation and give her a moment to compose herself. I put Morgan down, she had started to calm down and notice Raegan's carseat and toys, and I picked up Raegan's blanket, and put her down in Morgan's room in her bed. I walked out and shut the door and left her for a minute. Morgan promptly ran in there, screaching "baby, baby" and when I walked back in there, Raegan had stopped crying and it looked like she might have passed out with her face in her blankie, as I know she likes. I grabbed Morgan and we walked back out. Not 30 seconds later, Morgan raced back in there, again announcing "baby, baby", and when I walked back in there and looked at her, Raegan was laying there with this big cheesy grin on her face. The STINKER! Didn't she remember what she had JUST been doing?

Since she was so happy I picked her up and went out into the living room. We all sat together for a few minutes, and then M&D Merritt showed up and I promptly handed the bab to her daddy. It was a funny experience. Good thing you can't really have kids this close together! That was kinda hard! But like Sabrina said, she knew I could handle it. Yes, that's true, but I definitely got to a point where I didn't have any other thoughts! I was TTTHHHISSSS close to calling Mazatlan, or Steve, or a neighbor. I needed an extra pair of hands for just two minutes so that I could separate the two girls and settle one of them down. But it all worked out, and there was no permanant damage. I slept like the dead that night though!

:)

Soap Crayons!

Fish lips!