The little things

It's hard for me to put into words how happy I am to be a stay at home mom, now. There are so many little things that I was missing and now a treasure whole-heartedly.

For one thing, getting to see Lily wake up. Before, every week day, I would leave the house before Corey and Lily woke up. An hour or so after I left, Corey would have to wake Lily up and bring her bobbing little sleepy head to the babysitters. On the weekends, I would be sad when she would wake me up because I so badly wanted to catch up on missed sleep.

Nowadays, I usually wake up to her rustling happily around her crib. We moved her into her own room recently and so I peek in the door to see her standing up, chin on her hands on the railing, crazy bed head raging, with the most gigantic grin you've ever seen. At this point, she usually starts laughing and falls over because she is not quite awake yet. The other morning, she was starting to wake up when Corey left, so he gently settled her in bed next to me so she and I could get another hour or so of sleep. When I woke up again, I heard her laughing. I look over and she is fully asleep, smiling and giggling to herself. Her eyes opened as she slowly woke, smile still on her face. Could there be any better way to wake up than laughing? I just want to bottle up her cuteness and keep it forever.

Speaking of sleeping, here is my favorite recent picture of Lily sleeping.



I am guessing that the animals are really enjoying the fact that I am staying home, too. This means all day air conditioning for the dogs. We used to keep them outside while we were gone because they can't always be trusted when home alone.