Sunday Afternoons

I absolutely love Sunday afternoons. Usually, I'm able to sneak into my pajamas and Michael is gracious enough to either take baby duty for a while and let me nap (which he did yesterday), or we manage to both squeeze in a nap while Phoebe is also down. Well, Phoebe napped and watched a little of the Braves game while I took my snooze, but Jake sweetly came in and woke me up so I wouldn't miss out on any of the fun. Fortunately, I was well rested so I didn't mind my alarm!

After Phoebe had her lunch, we decided to dig out some toys and play around in her room. She's starting to really learn so many things so fast: in other words, she plays with things in new ways other than just tasting them. We drummed on the wipes, cuddled Jake, moved around the busy beads, and "read" a soft book. Phoebe was delighted to show off for her daddy, who was snapping pictures as we played. This is only a tiny sample of the pictures we took yesterday! I can't believe how big she's getting... Phoebe will be six months old on Friday! YIKES! (Michael informed me that she is 1/32 of the way to driving. I could've smacked him!)

Anyway, after all the hard playing we did, Phoebe and I cuddled on the couch while Michael loaded up the pictures... it's hard to tell how she's laying, but she is on her tummy propped up against my legs. She stayed that way, still, for over twenty minutes! For those of you who have little ones, you know that even twenty seconds of being still is a small miracle! She ended up passing out in my lap and snoozing for a few minutes, which was, by the way, the duration of her afternoon nap.

We wouldn't have disturbed her, except that we had plans to go to Michael's grandmother's house to wish her a happy 94th birthday with the rest of the family. It was fun to play pass-the-baby and catch up with aunts and uncles, but Phoebe did not appreciate losing her nap when we got into the car. She struggled to fall asleep in her carseat, and we weren't even headed home! We were bringing her straight to the nursery so that we could go to LIFE group. Finally, after I broke several laws and climbed into the back seat, I was able to give her some more of her bottle and she conked. The nursery workers were gracious enough to leave her in her carseat for a catnap. I'm thrilled, too, because we really enjoyed getting to kick off the fall semester of group with our friends!

We returned to the nursery to pick up a happy baby who had successfully gone potty (a huge event in our house), and came home to feed our little angel -- who ate double her usual feeding!! I think she was hungry! Even though yesterday was totally chaotic, we managed to pull off some Sunday rest as well.

This upcoming week is particularly exciting: Bible study will kick off tomorrow, and in the afternoon, Phoebe and I will be heading to visit Mops and Pops! Michael is gracious enough to allow us to do another without-Daddy trip so soon... but it's an extra special reason! We're going to get to see the Ham family and all six of their sweet babies. Also, the Woodsers are having baby #8 (the reason for the Ham trip), so I'll get to see them, too! The Hams are sweet, sweet friends of ours... Mama Ham taught my 7th grade Sunday school class, and when her oldest two were born, I babysat them. They've since moved out of town, but the oldest three were in our wedding, and I haven't even met the youngest one! None of them have ever met Phoebe, either -- so it'll be quite an exciting week! Seven children under the age of 10 will be under my parents' roof! Yay!

Okay, I have about 3 minutes now to eat my lunch... gotta run!