Lightheartedness

Happy new year! I had planned on writing more over the holidays, but instead chose to spend the time with my family. Soon my husband's job will take him away for several days at a time regularly instead of a few times a year, so I enjoyed us being all together instead of giving attention to my computer. We had a nice quiet holiday weekend, just the rest we all needed.

We did have our moments. Saturday night we all stayed up for the New Year. We usually watch movies up until around 11:30 and then watch the ball drop in Times Square. This year we played games instead. Sophie crashed at 11:30 and I put her in bed. I was awake until 2:30, but not really worried because Sophie is a late sleeper. Just that morning she had slept unitl almost 11! But January 1... no. She was up (REALLY up, not "going back to sleep in 10 minutes" up) at 6:30. First time ever she's been up for the day that early. At 7 I finally gave in. "Do you want to watch Elmo?" "Yeah!!" was her reply as she ran down the hall to the living room. I took my pillow and blanket and napped on the couch as she sat with me and watched Sesame Street. My wonderful husband made pancakes for breakfast. Guess where Sophie was, though, when breakfast was ready and the whole family was up? Sound asleep on the couch under my blanket, on my pillow.

Last night, as we were nearing the end of dinner, Sophie started a game of peekaboo with us. Daddy played along, and she'd say "Where Dada?" and squeal when he uncovered his eyes and said peekaboo. We went around the table playing for her, and then all of us covered our eyes at once. She'd name off two of us at a time - Dada and Mama, Mama and Aya (Emma) - then "Aya! Mama! Dada!" and shriek with laughter when we all three said "peekaboo!" The laughter of the entire family together is priceless.

This morning was interesting, also. We had our first snow of the season last night. Not much, just a dusting, but it was so cold overnight that it stayed until morning. Emma was convinced there wouldn't be school, but I told her not to count on that. She was up at 5:30 this morning, for her first day back after winter break. She checked the local news website for school closings, and hers was not listed. Five minutes into her shower, the phone woke me up. It was the auto-recording saying that due to icy roads, her school system was closed. I went into the bathroom to tell her. "You've gotta be kidding me! I checked the listings!" Our school system procrastinates sometimes I think. I thought it was hilarious.

On the way to Sophie's babysitter's house this morning, she and I were singing her favorite songs. ABCs, Wheels on the Bus, and Five Little Monkeys. My phone was in my lap since I had called to let her sitter know we were on the way. Apparently I accidentally touched Emma's name in my favorites list, because after the third song I glanced down and saw she was on the phone. She was able to listen in to all three songs. Isn't she lucky? :-)