A Little Bit of Perfection

Monday morning I was able to have three hours to myself before the girls woke up. It was lovely, and I got out of bed Tuesday morning thinking the same thing would happen. It didn't. Hadley was up at 6:30 singing the ABCs at the top of her lungs. I walked into her room to greet her and she said, "Hi, Momma! I wake up!"

And with all my rigid planning I learn that whatever I have layed out to do with my day, nothing comes close to the fun I have with Hadley and now Harper. Sure, taking care of them is hard and I am exhausted by 8 at night. But it is hard to be disappointed when I hear my children's voices. Even if it is before I planned on them getting up. I think the following pictures of my day will show what I'm talking about.

Now that I have two girls, I decided yesterday that I should take full advantage and begin my plans to start my own Drill Team. What better way to begin teaching Hadley and Harper my old dance routines than with Mariah Carey's classic song, "All I Want for Christmas"?

Even Harper wanted to join in as Hadley will show:

All that dancing really wore Harper out, so Hadley and I let her take a little nap while we decorated the Christmas tree. We brought the tree home on Sunday, and Hadley has been eager to decorate it. On Monday she was decorating it with her puzzle pieces and money from her cash register. I didn't care that she was doing that, but she got annoyed with me when I told her, "No, you may not decorate the tree with your books." This was just as she was placing the hardcover copy of In the Small, Small Pond on a branch.

When I brought out the "real" ornaments, I thought Hadley would be interested in putting them on the tree. However, what she was more interested in was sitting on the floor, unwrapping each one, carefully looking at it, asking what it was, then saying, "Here ya go, Mamma." Not since that Hallmark commercial where the little boy is singing "O, Holy Night" thinking his older brother wasn't going to be there to sing it with him, but then the older brother shows up somewhere around the part of "fall on your knees" to sing it with him, has there been a sweeter Christmas scene.

Blowing on the french horn:

While I didn't have time to do everything I wanted to do before the girls got up, I was able to read from the book God With Us. The devotion for the Second Tuesday of Advent was written by Scott Cairns and he writes, "...our own bodies partake of [God's] perfection." I thought of that as I spent the day with Hadley and Harper. Things might not be according to my "perfect" plans, but I get to spend it with what I think are two little masterpieces.

What Did She Do?

As with most infants, Harper doesn't do much yet. The three of us look at her each day and wait for a coo or a smile but it doesn't always happen. When Harper does do something, it is usually followed by Jesse or I saying, "Oh!" As in, "Oh, she smiled!" Or, "Oh, she pooped!" (You can read the "ohs" with different tones.) When Hadley hears an "Oh" from us, she asks, "What did she do?" Sometimes she'll even answer her own question. "Harper pooped."

And life carries on. Hadley goes back to playing with her puzzles, or blocks, and we go back to doing whatever it was we were doing. So I don't have many things to tell about Harper just yet as we are still learning about the kind of person she is becoming. But I can offer some pictures.

This is Harper celebrating her 5 week birthday:

And a short video:

And here are some of our Christmas picture outtakes. We took a picture of the four of us this morning. Whether or not I make cards and send them out is a different story. I have good intentions to send out cards, but you know all about good intentions and the road they pave....
I just love my big sister.
And she loves me.