The Middle of the Night

The other night- as I lay awake way past when I should have been snoozing- I heard Sienna cry out.

I went to her and she couldn’t tell me anything that was hurting or anything that had scared her so I retucked her into bed and slid back into mine, hoping sleep would come this time.

She did it again. And a third time. That third time I asked her if she wanted me to lay with her. Surprisingly my need-personal-space daughter said yeah. We lay in the dark not speaking. Just barely touching. Crammed onto a trundle bed that gets pulled out every night and pushed back in every morning.

I treasured those moments with her. I took the time to smell her scent and feel her chubby fingers as they stroked her bunny. I wasn’t thinking about sleep or to-dos or tomorrow. Just her. A daughter, a middle child. And I didn’t mind curling my adult body beside her tiny one even if it was in the middle of the night because I know there are days coming where a snuggle with Mommy won’t be enough to solve her problems. Her disappointments will be too deep for my embrace to resolve. Her fears will be things that haunt me too.

So I chose to relish that moment when a Mommy’s arms were more than enough to soothe an innocent heart back to sleep. Even if she did tell me after 20 minutes I could go back to my bed. I think it was the personal space thing.

I love…

…cooking dinner while being serenaded by Needtobreathe

….simple dinners: Pineapple Ham

…how Kiran waits eagerly every month for her new High Five magazine and is captivated by it for at least an hour when it arrives

…the 4 hour simultaneous naps my twins took today

…chopping fresh veggies from the farms near our house

…picking strawberries with friends

What are you loving today?

At Our House…

we start ‘em young.

Your Input, Please

I was doing an exercise and it said to name your three favorite movies and find the common theme between them.

So

1. 10 Things I Hate About You

2. Remember the Titans

3. Sound of Music

Besides having fantastic soundtracks, what common themes do these three movies have in common???

We Did It!

We finally cancelled our satellite TV service.

We had been talking it over for months, debating the pros and cons. We put that DVR to good use during the first year of the twins’ lives. We watched many House Hunters International during dreamfeeds and caught up on House and 1000 Places to See Before You Die during the middle of the night feeds. We ran through a Sesame Street phase, a Sid the Science kid phase, a Super Why phase and finally a Dora phase with the girls.

But… the kids are older. No more middle of the night feeds. No more dreamfeeds. No more nursing at all (but that’s a whole ‘nother post). We’re busy and we decided to pull the plug.

And.

I love it.

The first few weeks we didn’t even have the antenna up and I didn’t miss it. I enjoyed the quiet and the extra time I found in my day. We are checking out DVDs from the library for the girls screen time and we actually hooked up the VCR from college and watched our wedding video for the first time ever! I also watched part of the cruise video from high school…. yet another post.

We’ve got the antenna hooked up now and receive the basic channels (although still no ch 7 which is in fact the closest one). I’m glad we’ll be able to watch some sporting events live or turn on the news for updates. But perhaps the best benefit of all is that it should afford me more time to blog!

Who Hasn’t?

Who hasn’t found their kid into the tissues, the toilet paper, or the wipes? Its like a kid rite of passage.

O left, R right

Can you guess which was the instigator and which was the follower?

Dear Finn

Dear Finn,

We hear that you received the same door plaything that we did for Christmas! However, we just don’t understand how it could be any fun for you. I mean who is on the other side of the door every time you open it? And who is there to open the window every time you close it? And really who slams the door on your head when you are halfway through it? We are sorry you can’t have any fun with your new toy. We’ll be glad to show you how its done.

Love, Rhys & Owen