Babyproofing

You'd think that I'd be good at this by now... but now that Julianna is mobile, I've got to relearn it all.  I also have to reteach Marc and Jessie and introduce Sam to the concept that anything, anytime, anywhere that Julianna could possibly reach - if you leave anything out, she's going to get it.  She's going to eat it.  She's going to spill it, rip it, dump it, and drool on it.  So far, this isn't going well - Sam, in particular, seems to have trouble remembering.  And of course, it's his stuff that she covets most of all.  We had a bad couple of minutes earlier this afternoon when Julie delightedly found his pack of cards, and started gleefully spreading them everywhere, bending them, eating them, etc.  Sam yelled at her, and poor Julie was flat out devastated.   

Last night, I was putting Julie to bed, and generally that's a super easy process.  I just change her, nurse her and out she goes.  But I had waited too long between the changing and nursing - and she passed out of the "tired" phase and into that psycho weird stage that they get into when they're super overtired and just WON'T sleep.  Finally, I took her into my bedroom and laid down with her in the dark, with just the television on.  And she'd nurse for a few minutes, and then pull away, grab her toes, shove them into her mouth and suck enthusiastically for a bit.  Then she'd let go and grin at me, hollering "Num, num, num, num."  She's so incredibly cute these days - I just want to eat her up.

Jessica Mary and Samuel have reached this lovely point in their relationship and they just really, really seem to like each other so much more.   I'm not sure what is prompting it, if it's just that they're both maturing, if it's the positive reinforcement, where they earn a little letter in the jar for being nice to each other.  It might also have something to do with Lilli and Sarah not being around as much, they're spending a lot more weekends at home these days (I think Lilli is being bombarded with homework, she's going into middle school next year).  But for whatever reason, my two older kids just flat out enjoy spending time together.  And I love it, love, love it.  It's not that they never squabble any more - but thank goodness, it's more a rarity and their default state of mind is one of mutual happiness.  I'm so glad...