Napping

This is not a very aesthetically pleasing picture but I didn't want to wake him up by cleaning his room or tidying the bed.

Mr. T is 4 right now. Nearly 4 1/2 and he just stopped napping and started what we call "rest time". Rest time for the kids is 1-2 hours in their rooms doing quiet activities - listening to stories on CD, reading books, Legos, playing with toys. For me it's time to get my lunch, have a breather, prep some dinner stuff and sit down to read or watch a TV show. We all need it, especially when Peter is working. However, lately, if I notice Mr. T is particularly quiet I will go down to check on him and see this. Lights on, sometimes a story going, and he is fast asleep, usually on his bed but sometimes (like today) on his floor. I quietly turn of the CD and the light, shut his door and let him sleep. And then he cries for about 30 minutes when he wakes up. EVERY SINGLE TIME. He did this the last year he napped too and it drove me crazy.

Tomorrow is Miss E's 6th birthday and I keep telling her to slow down and stop growing for a bit but she won't do it. She never listens to me.

The idea of a birthday party this year made me a bit panicky, we don't know anyone she is going to school with, I had no idea where to have it, and it just seemed too hard and stressful. Instead, we are kidnapping my darling niece and nephew and heading to the beach for a night with my parents. The beach is one of her favorite places, her cousins and grandparents are some of her favorite people and she loves staying in hotels. We are going to eat dinner at a restaurant, have a princess party in our hotel room, watch movies, go to the aquarium, swim at the hotel and play on the beach. We are all super excited and it feels like a vacation for Peter and I as well.

I cannot believe she is going to be 6! I have been a mother for six years. Tonight as I put her to bed I told her her birth story like I do every year the night before her birthday. Each year I can add a little more realistic detail in as she gets older, like about how much it hurt and how long it took and how her heart was so strong that it never faltered and how she stayed awake for the first 24 hours after she was born. Brining back those memories make it seem like it was only months ago instead of years when really, it was a lifetime ago. I have changed and grown so much in these last six years that it really is almost like starting another life. Miss E has been a true blessing for me, I could not have asked for, created or imagined a more perfect daughter for me. She keeps me on my toes, she is smart, kind, funny, caring and strong-willed. She makes me a better person and I hope some day if she reads this she knows how truly, truly loved and appreciated she is.