First Night

Yesterday was another gorgeous spring day here (sorry, Ann-Marie). Thursdays are always busy for us because Lucy swims in the morning, then we rush home, eat lunch, and head off to school. I had tons of things to do--the usual: lots of laundry, clean the house, work some more on the two bedrooms--but since it was so nice, after school I decided to teach the girls how to play hopscotch instead. I've sort of forgotten how myself; I just remember that there are boxes, and you toss a rock, and you hop, so we improvised. (The beauty of it being neither of them had ever even heard of hopscotch.) Lucy did really well at it, and what Elaine lacked, she made up for in enthusiasm. She especially liked the part where she could throw rocks. Then she would hop around the patio at random. She finally grabbed a piece of chalk and settled down to draw awhile.

Then, because they were still playing out back and I don't like them to be outside and out of my sight, instead of working on cleaning I stayed in the kitchen and made some apple bread. So even though I didn't get things done that I needed to, I played outside with my girls, and our house smelled delicious inside. I think those are the kinds of things they'll remember more, so I'm not too worried about it.

Later on when they were inside, I did start work again on the upstairs bedrooms. I finally got all of the books organized (in our house, that is a big job), and lots of things put away. Darren came upstairs and checked in, so I asked him to help me move the changing table out (we haven't used it as a changing table in ages. It sits there, collecting dust and random toys) and the dresser over. That motivated him to go up to the attic, bring down Elaine's twin bed, and set it up. Both girls were so excited: Lucy kept saying, "My room is all different! I can't wait until Elaine moves in! Can she sleep here tonight?" and Elaine just bounced around, getting in all of our way. We said, no, let's wait until the weekend (we thought we might try a nap as a trial run in the new bed), but somehow for better or worse, Elaine slept in her new big girl bed last night.

They were too excited, both of them, to settle down at first, but they finally went to sleep listening to "Betsy-Tacy" on CD. I left for work at 5:30 this morning and never heard a peep from either of them all night. I can't believe it. It all happened so fast I've hardly had time to be sad about it, though deep down inside I am trying not to think about the fact that I will never have a baby in a crib again.

Darren is thinking he might like the furniture arranged a different way, and I still need to hang both of their quilts, so I should have pictures by Monday. I'll also have pictures of the guestroom, which is a total disaster right now. I'm going to keep it that way for pictures, kind of like they do in extreme makeovers, so when it's done the contrast will be startling (hopefully).

Happy weekend!