Predictable surprise?

For our whole relationship (especially the initial period of distance), Steve loved coming back a day earlier than he had told me to surprise me. This is actually how he proposed. You would like I'd have caught on after 6 years, but last night when my phone had that familiar ring, I was surprised to hear my hubby's voice and offer for company at 10 pm! Yay! Daddy's home! Hubby's home! Mama can take a shower alone again!

The week finished up with for mother & daughter, I was pleased to remember just how much I enjoy her company. She's a really great companion and she's funny as heck, but her evening conversational skills are a little limited.

So I now have my parnter back, which is good because the next two weeks are crazy! Tuesday evening Oscar (grandpa Wilson) gets to town for a quick visit before he heads to Canada Thursday. Then Thursday (or Wednesday, or Friday) the Hayes family rolls in for a pit stop on their way to WA. I get to meet my nephew. I'm stoaked! Then they hit the road again on Saturday or Sunday or Monday, we'll see, leaving time to change the sheets for Grammy's arrival Wednesday. Then Thursday after work it's time to head Nort' (Late at night when Emma should - please, for the love of God - sleep for most of the drive.) for a few days in Canada. Eh.

Let the fun begin!

A.W.E.S.O.M.E.

Reasons yesterday rocked:

*You slept well. Like a 4 hr stretch followed by 2 - 2 hr stretches. This is great. And I pretty much had to wake you up so we wouldn't be late for work. Or rather, I wouldn't be late for work, your work is play and you're always on time.

*You were my giggly, sweetie pie, happy, lovely baby. With the exception of when I tried tricking you in to hanging out in the exersaucer while I showered. We compromised and you sat in the tub with me. Worked out well because our meeting for church went late Monday night and you didn't get a bath.

*We may have (cross your fingers, knock on wood) figured out the day care situation for fall with an AWESOME option. More to come.

*Bath time was fun again! And you are a nut afterwards tearing it up in the empty tub. I'd post a video, but daddy would be annoyed at me for sharing naked Emma with the world. If you're a close personal friend or family member, you can probably be privy to the cuteness!

*I scored the object of my CL desire. I've been obsessively hunting down a BOB stroller for, um, months now. Like checking CL multiple times a day in any city I either know someone or know someone will be driving through. And I'm not kidding. Albq, Witchita, Des Moines, you name it. You may have even been asked to meet a stranger and get the goods for me. Thank you anyway, but that won't be necessary as Emma and I will be treking up to Albertville Friday morning to obtain our awesome score. This deserves some sort of merit badge.

We miss daddy, but let's face it, girls rock!

Good listener . . .

At least when it counts.

When I told Emma (or the baby who was either Emma or Wil) to stay put and under absolutely no circumstances come early, she listened.

When Steve told Emma to be nice to her mama while he's away, she listened (at least so far).

When I've told Emma not to tip over the dog dish, open the toilet, play with the kong, pull my hair, pinch my neck, grab my glasses, she doesn't.

I guess that means she's human. And she's pretty darn great.

Embarking on some great adventures

The Murrays are adventuring it this week. Steve in the magestic Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Katie & Emma in the great unknown of solo parenting for a week. Gulp! Sure, Steve may run across a bear or moose and will be bunking up with family for the week under the stars, but Katie will most certainly face the ferocious clingasaurus with limited back up!

Emma is an absolute gem, the best thing in our lives, and she is also a bit of a force to be reckoned with at times. This week has been host to some epic melt downs - both by mother and child on one day - and we're praying Steve's right when he says she's getting it out of her system before he leaves. There is nothing more beautiful than the sight of your husband when your child has been screaming when just the thought of putting her down happened across your mind and that sight will be a mirage until next Sunday night.

So please pray for the Murrays this week - those in the BWCA to have a safe, healthy, wonderful trip enjoying the beauty of the untouched land and those in the wilds of Lake Nokomis, for patience, strength, and the ability to see the perfect child behind the melt downs (assuming that we may see at least one in the next 7 days).

*Oh, and to all of you life boats who have offered play dates and extra time spent with Em - thank you in advance!*

Accidental CIO?

I came home from work last night to find you sleeping in your crib. This is pretty typical for a Thursday, you and daddy play hard and he puts you down and then he and I go to bed and wait for you to wake to join us. We put on the monitor and chatted a bit before drifting off. At one point, the monitor was beeping and needed charging, so he turned the other on to take over.

Enter 2 am. I woke up and realized you weren't with us. I looked to see if the monitors were on and you had just (miraculously) remained asleep and what do I see? NOTHING! The little green light that indicates that we can hear you is off! Ahh! Enter mama guilt! So daddy hustled upstairs to check on you and found you still asleep. Even after he moved a few things around.

Now, in theory I should capitalized on my time alone and caught some heavy zzzzz's. But this horrible image of you standing in your crib, crying, and finally giving up and crashing kept nagging me so I was up for the better part of an hour. It was probably just as I was about to get to sleep that you actually did wake up for more than a stir and I could scoop you up in my arms (and nurse since I hadn't in almost 10 hrs - eek!) and melt away some of the guilt with some snuggles.

I'm looking forward to the day - night - when you sleep for a solid 8. Or even 6, I'm not that picky, but when that happens, I want it to be because you were ready for that, not because we left you crying and didn't hear you. Guess that's why the ultimate goal is good enough parenting!!

Now I hope you've been enjoying your nap because before too long I'm going to need to wake you up, we've got some fun plans this morning at the Farmer's Market with E & C!!

Whirlwind

I thought after last summer, this summer would seem relaxing. I guess in some ways it has been - the house isn't (actively) under construction, licensure exams are a thing of the past, baby prep has transitioned in to baby proof - but man is the time flying!

Two weeks ago, my parents zipped in to town for their own whirlwind visit. They got to our house Thursday evening, headed to Stillwater Friday evening, partied it up to celebrate their 31st anniversary, a new wedding, and a graduation, and spent Sunday night and Monday with us. Big bummer was I caught some sort of icky stomach bug - no, I am not pregnant - and wasn't much fun. Big bonus was two extra sets of hands to help out with Emmanator when I was feeling icky.

The next weekend we hopped in the car on Friday to head to Madison for a wedding. Car trips are iffy with Em and this one went reasonably well. Back to Mpls Saturday only to head to Hudson Sunday afternoon for the 4th. It was a great time and so much fun, but I think we were all grateful that Monday was a holiday so we could decompress a little before heading back to the grind.

Enter Wednesday and daddy got nailed with a (lesser) version of whatever hit me a week or so before. No bueno. So mama juggled Em to try helping him rest (and was pretty exhausted, grateful for my typically very helpful partner and even more exhausted thinking that I'll be solo for a week coming up before too long). And now our bags are packed again as we plan to head to La Crosse this weekend to celebrate the impending arrival of our newest nephew!

Life is good and we're grateful to have so many things to celebrate, but I'm looking forward to our next "boring" weekend at home!!

A few summer pics