It is a lovely sunny day. A leisurely day. A morning spent watching the lake and my boy, digging in the sand. An afternoon spent in the cool dark of the house, the sun sneaking in at a slant through the porch, holding my sleeping girl. Time to tell you a few of the things I love about my children, right now.

The girl:

She is part turtle, part dinosaur. She is tiny (though less so every day!) and delicate, pink encased in pink with at least one ruffle or bow on her every day. Rosebud lips and long, pale eyelashes and hair that is just starting to curl, the tiniest bit, in the back. And then-- snort, grunt... face contorted, scowling, pouting, arms up and flailing... grunt some more... these strange, loud dinosaur noises come out of this small soft thing, accompanied by the most dramatic faces. And, as quick as she starts, she'll flop back into complete relaxation, full-abandon, rag-doll-armed slumber. And flash a sleep-smile at me, a smile that says, there, got that out of my system, all's right with the world again. A smile of utter contentment that gives a glimpse of the little girl to come.

I can only dream that this contentment and ease will continue for her... all the way to the teenage years, right? A mom can dream....

Ivy continues to take her sleep very seriously. She is probably still sleeping 20 hours a day, with short awake periods (5-45 minutes) throughout the day, mostly morning and evening, and then a nice, awake, somewhat crabby and demanding period somewhere around midnight.

We are approaching the 3-week mark, at which point we will begin to see her true colors. I am crossing lots of fingers that her true colors prove to be a sleeper and a consolable fusser. I know babies fuss. She is bound to have her crabby moments, bound to be uncomfortable and gassy and hard to live with at times. So far, those times are manageable. A little bouncing, some position changes, a lot of burping, and we can keep the crying to a minimum. Our sleepy, grunty, content baby is usually back in a matter of minutes or certainly a few hours. Stay this way, sweet girl, please?

Another thing I love about her: She still smells amazing. I love to nestle her in on my chest, a little ball of baby, feet cradled in my hand and the top of her fuzzy little head right there under my chin. A sniff away. And easy to kiss.

The boy:

Most of what I love about the boy at the moment can't be described. Because it's not even the things he says these days, but rather the way he says them. The inflection in his voice and the soft little mispronunciations of his speech and his oh-so-serious demeanor combine to make him utterly, stinking irresistable. I am a sucker for this kid. And the problem is, he knows it. You can see it in the sparkle in those gorgeous blue eyes-- this boy knows he's got his mama wrapped around his sweet, grubby pinkie finger. He tests the limits all the time but he generally tests them in a way that makes it impossible for me to get angry. This morning, as we had a getting-used-to-the day snuggle on his bed (he's in the toddler bed all the time now, by the way...) he looks up at me with those sparkly eyes and says in his best sleepy-voice, "watch tv???" I said, "Jack, since when do we watch TV first thing in the morning?" So he pauses, then looks up again and says, "cookies." Just like that, like it's a given that I will produce cookies for him at 7:30 in the morning. Eventually we did agree on waffles and I had a wonderful time with my chef's helper stirring in the applesauce and shaking on the cinnamon to make breakfast...
Another e
xample of how the boy gets away with everything can be viewed in the video below. Our "family fun" activity yesterday was to clean the porch. Nat and I started this escapade without the boy, but it is easy to forget just how much he loves to help. He was interested in what we were doing and so we gave him his own rag and before we knew it we had an overjoyed toddler stomping around the wet porch (in his socks, mind you), sloshing dirty water onto the floor and exclaiming "Tee?? It make red! I'm getting it darker!" and gleefully saying "This is awesome! We're making gray!" as he looked into the bucket. Who knew it would be such a good time? And the porch really does look better...

For the record, this was taken AFTER he'd been told to come inside for a bath and a nap. So you can see how well that went for me. I had gone out to tell him that it was time to come in, and the part you don't see on the video was him looking at me, sweet and serious, and saying, "Well, mommy, I'm just brushin this and so I can get it clean. Oh yeah! Let's do it!" Melt me.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_qushx99AkrA/TAA4Spbo1sI/AAAAAAAACbg/CVJyPw5Bw1I/s144/may%202010%20Ivy%20almost%203%20weeks%20042.jpg