Big Helper

The last few nights when I am feeding Carina her bottle and about to put her to bed, Dante has been super cute and sitting at my feet reading a book. When I tell him it's time, he carries his book into our our bed climbs in and waits until I get there after putting Carina in the crib. He has calmly picked out books to read and told me what four songs we will sing before sleeping. Then he has gone to sleep after the fourth song.

Every other time that Chris has been away, this time of night has been very stressful to manage, because Dante wouldn't understand that he needed to be quiet so that Carina could go to sleep. Maybe something finally clicked. It has made this weekend much more bearable!

The past two mornings, I have been woken up around 6:45am to both kids singing. First, I will hear Carina babbling away and giggling and then all of a sudden, Dante starts singing and giggling with her. Normally, I would've sent them both back to bed at that hour, but they're both being so sweet and good that we just end up getting up and starting our day.

We spent last weekend catching up with old friends. On Saturday, we went to see Caleb to wish him a belated 3rd birthday. It's pretty amusing to watch 3 year olds "play". They were happy to see each other and I was happy to get to hang out with Tasha for a little while as well. On Sunday, we went to visit Tyler and Gretchen. Tyler and Dante had a blast playing in the pool and singing the ABC song together.

Gretchen and Carina just sort of eyed each other and went about their business of playing and crawling around. Heather and I also had a chance to catch up - as much as you can when you are handling two kids a piece. Dante was worn out each day, but very happy to have seen his old friends. We can't wait for summer when we get to do that more often! I used to work with both Heather and Natasha, so a playdate for the boys is really an excuse for a playdate for us as well.

(OK, a side funny note about the matching outfits on the girls. When Heather and I worked together, we were always asked if we were sisters. We would laugh and have no idea where they got that from. Similar freckles maybe? When the boys were born, they couldn't have looked any different and we were always asked if they were twins! I couldn't resist when the girls were born to buy them matching outfits anticipating that question again. )

I am thinking more and more about Dante's upcoming third birthday on May 15th. Kid's birthday parties can grow exponentially somehow and take on a life of their own, so I think we will stick with low key. I asked Dante tonight what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said he wanted to have a picnic. Sounds like a plan to me.