Of Relishing the Moments

It was another day of savoring these final moments/days/weeks (who knows?) with our older kids before Mommy's attention gets unfairly directed toward the wee one who will require time for feeding and the constant protection of, "Please don't poke the baby!"

Thus, after a relaxing morning wherein Daddy took kid duty and allowed me as much time as I needed for rest, breakfast in bed (again!) and even time to do my hair (while the kids were awake - this is quite the treat!), I was refreshed enough to instigate a painting session - as we often hear Micaiah announce, "I want to paint!" and generally respond with, "Not today, sweetheart."  In fact, I'm not sure why she keeps trying because, before today, I honestly do not recall the number of months since she last had the opportunity - especially with a brush, which, apparently, was really important to her.

And so she spent her morning plastering the pages with red, pink, white and purple paint (in honor of Valentine's Day, of course).  Emmett had a little less canvas time as he insisted on sticking the brush in his mouth, despite our pleas not to, and had to be pacified by his friend Diego (as in Dora's cousin) while his sister continued on in the endeavor from which he was so traumatized to be pulled away.

Before dinner I had the opportunity to play catch with both of our kids.  Loved getting to hear Emmett exclaim, "Ca, Momma!" before chucking his ball in my direction and also loved seeing both of our children actually catching the ones tossed to them.  Granted their rate of actually grasping the thrown ball vs. chasing it down after it bounced off their chests was rather low, but I'm still impressed.

Finally, before bed-time we all gathered around the ottoman (Mommy refused the request to play on the floor, thank you very much) for Candy Land, Memory and Hi Ho Cherry-O - and it was the first time since we bought the games a couple of years ago that Micaiah actually understood not only the premise of each game, but what it meant to win and how to actually accomplish the goal.  She downright spanked us in Memory and Candy Land and loved putting her cardboard cherries in the basket for our final game.  Emmett, meanwhile, reveled in playing the role of game assistant, whether that meant drawing and dispersing the cards for everyone in Candy Land, being the keeper of Micaiah's pairs in Memory, or pushing the spinner for Hi Ho Cherry-O, he was quite the little helper.

Overall, a great day - time well-spent with our precious toddlers.