For the past week or so, she's begun to speak in "sentences." I've put quotations around the word because, while I consider "Music on" to be a sentence when you're 19 months old, Tom maintains that it's a sentence fragment and therefore does not count. However, it wasn't until this morning that she suddenly began to use possessives and adjectives in her phrases. She pointed to the table where Tom had placed it and identified "Daddy's phone." She then proceeded to request some "Elmo crackers" (Elmo being the descriptor- the brand is Earth's Best Organic, but since Elmo is displayed prominently on the box, she identifies the type of cracker with him).
When I shared some of my lunch with her, she made sure to point out that she was eating "Abby's pizza," and afterwards, while wandering the living room, proudly announced to me (as she placed her tiny feet in each one), "Daddy's shoes!"
Nap time today was a tiny little miracle. I had the thought, during those beautiful two hours in which the babies' naps overlapped, that perhaps God had made sure to give me this little break today to make up for all the exhausting chaos of the last few.
I had taken both children up to Abby's room after breakfast, as has become our routine, for some quiet play time for Abby. She's been delaying her first nap and dropping her second for three or four days now, so I figured I'd let her play until around lunchtime and then see about getting her to nap. Today, she seemed to be tiring just a little bit early, so I gave her a snack to tide her over in case she needed to sleep before lunch, and as she ate it, I noticed that Michael's little head was nodding forward in sleep as he sat in my lap.
I laid him down in the bassinet at 11:45, and then asked Abby if she was sleepy, too. She said yes, so I decided to try the toddler bed, since it was in the same room, and it had been a couple of days since I really made an effort to get her to use it. She got in with no resistance, and made herself comfortable right away, so I sat in the glider and figured I'd sit with her until she got tired of it and then move her to the crib.
It took her awhile to actually fall asleep (I think it was around 12:30), but she lay virtually still until then and did not fuss or try to get out. So I allowed myself a cat-nap, too. I didn't sleep long, or deeply, but it was definitely refreshing to have the opportunity. The only caveat was that I was stuck in the room even after I had gotten all of the sleep that I could, for fear that opening the door would wake one or both of the children. But it was worth it, to see them both get a good nap, and to have the opportunity to sit in silence and watch them sleeping so peacefully.
At one point, Abby rolled onto her tummy and let her little feet hang over the edge of the mattress. It was so adorable that I badly wanted to snap a picture, but there was so little light in the room that I would have needed a flash, and I wasn't about to risk it.
2:00 rolled around and Abby began to wake, but Michael was still slumbering peacefully. She woke with a smile, and as she did, looked at me, pointed to the bed, and said proudly, "Bed!" It was just one word, but I got the sense that she was bragging to me that she was able to take a nap in it. I was so proud.
And little Michael. He slept until 2:30, giving me time to spend a quiet lunch with Abby downstairs before retrieving him, and clocking in not one, not two, but nearly three hours of sleep for his afternoon nap!
As for his five-month pictures, I did attempt that again this morning, with some amount of success. I think the shots are pretty cute, but he was being Mr. Serious, and I could not get him to smile.
That is, until after his nap. The picture quality is not so great in these, but I think that his expressions make up for that.
