LOVE is a BABY

Every day with this baby is just more precious than the last. I feel like I am finally seeing the beauty in 'staying at home.' Each day the question of whether I should go back to full time work just gets further and further from my brain. Our days start between 6 and 7...she and her Dad handle the morning diaper change and meet me at the couch for the first feeding then she goes back to her Dad if he has any time before he has to get ready for work. We spend the next hour to hour and a half playing in the floor - some days she plays by herself and I try to make beds, brush my teeth, change, etc... or on days like today, I sit and we explore everything together. Lately I have been lettting her play with a cocktail shaker (of all things!) but its shiny and has ridges and makes neat noises with her other toys. And she LOVES little rubber balls like golf balls. I keep thinking each morning she will get tired of these things but nope, before I know it, she has one in each hand and banging them together and grinning like a cheshire cat the whole time. Then we go do naptime routine and I use her naptime for breakfast, a little email time or little chores like the garden, etc. Call Dad, Call Mike, sweep, finish getting myself ready for the gym and like a clock she is up 1 hour after she goes down. Then she has her morning snack - usually cereal with bananas. We just found out she is a little anemic so we will be adding her iron drops to her cereal...I tasted them yesterday. They taste like car exhaust smells. SO after she eats, we head to the gym where she is the local mascot and is so loved. As we approach the door to Candace's room, she gets her big "peek-a-boo" grin becauses she knows when we round the corner Candance is going to jump up and smile and laugh at her, and she laughs and reaches for her the minute she sees her. I thank the good Lord for that every night. Then we head home and she has nother feeding, and a little play but usually she is whipped so we head straight for nap. I shower and eat lunch and she us up and we have the whole afternoon to kill. It's so hot, we have been just hanging inside. He she is yesterday during the afternoon. The piano continues to be a favorite.

And so does the camera...

Once Mike gets home, we have an hour or two to just lay in the floor and play (WHAT DID WE DO BEFORE SHE CAME ALONG!!???) and then it's bedtime... Then we start dinner, eat, veg for a minute and head back to bed, checking on her each night before we turn into our bedroom and shut everything down for the night. Last night she was flat on her back like a big starfish with her arms straight up over her head, just a' sawing toothpicks. She was OUT. She woke at 10, so I fed her and she slept thorugh until 6:45 this morning. Bless her for that. I'm ready to drop the 12 feeding, so I'll happily exchange it for a 10 so I can do it before I go to sleep for the night.

So, as we are prone to say around here alot...LOVE is a BABY.