Crunchy Snuggles

This Tuesday was my first morning giving the kids their breakfast since my surgery a week-and-a-half prior. Before Adrian left for work, he lifted T out of his crib (b/c I'm not allowed to lift) and placed the sleepy guy in bed with me. Adrian kissed us good-bye and shut the gate to the downstairs before heading to work.

I'll admit it. I was nervous. It was the first time in a while that I was going to be taking care of the kids by myself, and even though my Mother-in-Law was coming at 10:30 to help with the house and kids, there were 3 hours where we would have to manage on our own.

Now I just have to brag about my kids for a moment here... these wonderful children of mine were both awake by 7:30, but they let ME get another hour of sleep! And during that hour, do you know what these kids were doing? They were quietly reading books in their rooms. Seriously, I was in heaven!

You know, I LOVE babies, little, tiny babies. And I constantly wipe away little tears each time I see my kids reach a new milestone that carries them farther away from babyhood. But this entertaining themselves for an hour thing? Pretty nice, I gotta tell ya. Maybe them growing older isn't such a sad thing after all.

Okay, so it's 8:30 and we head downstairs for breakfast. I have to keep it simple, since I'm not supposed to be on my feet much yet. I quickly gathered what I could -- with the goal of not having to get up again and again like I usually have to do during a meal -- and then we all sat down to eat. That breakfast was a little unconventional for us. It consisted of vitamins, sippy cups of juice, a smorgasborg of three different cereals, and bananas, and... we sat in a circle on the kitchen floor to eat. (I didn't want to move too far from the fridge or cupboards, just in case.)

Despite the fact that my floor has not been mopped since before the surgery, our picnic wasn't half bad. And despite the fact that the kids were not confined to their "food chairs," they weren't terribly squirmy and weren't running around getting their sticky hands on the walls. In fact it was a nice continuation of a nice morning. Soon I had one kid sitting on each of my indian-crossed legs, and we were all snuggling close as we crunched on cereal. Since the kids were sick during all of my recovery, we've had to keep our distance from each other. I've REALLY missed the snuggling, and I can tell that they've felt the same.

It's good to be back.

(Reality check: By 10:00 T had a nasty poop-through, and Oo decided that she is no longer capable of wiping after her own potty break. So while I was up to my elbows in stink and baby wipes with T, Oo was upstairs screaming and wailing b/c she was 100% certain she would be sitting on the potty, all alone, forever.)