Play dates are fun, until the drive home

I usually bring Abby up for nap-time and then go back downstairs to get Lily. Every day, without fail, Abby stands up and waits for Lily to arrive. Then she smiles and giggles. It melts my heart every day, without fail.

I brought the girls to Maple Grove today for a play date with my friends Jodi and Jen and their kids. The girls had lots of fun going through someone else's stuff and messing up someone else's house (thanks Jodi). And I had lots of fun talking to adults--that's the hardest part about staying at home with the kids, I miss conversations with grownups. Unfortunately, by the time Dave gets home each night, I'm too wiped out to do much talking. I can't really complain though, I only have a couple weeks left at home with the kids--it's gone by so fast.

So we had a good morning, followed by a tough afternoon (for me at least). The kids fell asleep on the way home. I had anticipated this would happen (it being nap-time and all), but I knew that they would sleep for about 25-30 minutes only--leaving me plenty of opportunity to put them back down right when we got home. However, traffic was frustrating beyond belief and it took an hour to get home. I pulled up and saw two sleeping kids. I put the car in park and saw two awake kids. Drats!

As any desperate mother would do, I attempted to put them back down. This proved to be a bad idea. Not able to stand the crying for more than two minutes, I got them back up and fed them. It is at this point that I need to extend an apology to my mother. She had the unfortunate luck of calling me at this moment, and being tired and hungry, I was quite cranky. Sorry mom, I ate something and was fine just ten minutes later.

So the kids had a very short nap today and their mother got no break. Both of these factors showed when poor daddy got home from work. By 6:30, the girls were prone to breaking down at the slightest bit of perceived unfairness or injustice. And yet, they were still adorably cute and funny. How do they do that? I couldn't wait for them to go to bed all day, and now that I'm thinking back to the day, I miss them and want to wake them up. I'm going to fight that urge, for the sake of my sanity tomorrow.

Day one hundred and eighty six.

Lily had to touch everything at Jodi's house.

This is the only shot I could get of all five kids at the same time (Makayla, Gavin (with some support from his mommy), Lily, Abby, and Alli). Notice that not a one of them is looking at the camera--I don't think I have a future as a professional photographer).