Abe blogging here, trying to help Lily get to bed earlier because she’s often up much of the night with our newborn. I had a friend at work give me some really great advice about how to survive the typical exhaustion that comes with having a new baby. He said that he and his wife would just go to bed at 8 or 8:30 and get 101-12 hours of sleep. Although that sleep was very interrupted as new parent sleep always is, the extra time in bed seemed to compensate and they did not feel afflicted. I’m hoping to pull off something similar, especially for Lily who carries the load at night, but given that it is 10:09 and she just went to bed, I’m hoping she can get even more sleep during nights to come.
I have decided that Sunday is the best day of the week. I have some very big and intimidating stuff happening at work next week and Lily is going to completely have her hands full Monday through Friday with the extra child and 3 hours fewer of sleep, and yet, today, on Sunday, we don’t think or worry about any of it. We just enjoy each other, get a spiritual lift from church, rest and visit with family. It was just what we needed.
Lily was up a lot last night with Ammon so I was the first out of bed (which is very rare). Lily left a cookbook on the counter with a recipe for double chocolate waffles. I made them and put some berry sauce on-top and they were very very good.
We all spent time in the morning until church. Lily planned on not going because she is still recovering from the birth, but today was the primary program at church, so Lily found it in her to go. It is such a testament to how much she loves Lydia. Exhausted and still very sore, she just could not miss seeing Lydia say her one sentence in the primary program. And Lydia did not disappoint! You can see her 30 seconds of church fame here. She seemed completely frozen by the spotlight and with the help of a teacher telling her the one sentence that Lily and I know she had down pat days before, Lydia stumbled out the words with all the timidness and lack of emotion or expression that I would expect from my serious, sweet and shy little girl. I loved it and I loved her. I’m so glad Lily could be there.
Back at home we had dinner. I made spaghetti from a box and then I tried to get fancy for a side. I roasted squash and carrot and then glazed them with a concoction of oil, salt, pepper, basil, thyme and parsley. It was a bit of overkill with the seasoning, especially the salt which I can still feel swimming in my veins, but it was a nice attempt and Lily was sweet to eat it.
After dinner, we just enjoyed the night as a family. One highlight is that Lydia lost her favorite stuffed cat a few weeks ago and we decided we would dedicate the evening to finding it. We first said a prayer asking God to help us find the cat. After an hour, we had no luck and then I finally found him (“Puss”) and another treasured stuffed cat (“Francie”) in a suitcase that Grandma Cullen had given to the girls. You can see in the picuWe felt very grateful and Lydia was completely happy.
Pictures!
We think the outfit above used to be Soren’s. Thanks Clark and Swathi! 
