Perfection

If I had to live a single day repeatedly for the rest of my life, yesterday might be it. The weather was beautiful. We woke up to open windows and the sounds of birds singing for the first time this year. We started the morning laying in bed while Micah went into Penelope's room and "read" a book to her. Michael cooked bacon, eggs, and potatoes for breakfast. The kids played in the backyard while Michael pulled some dead weeds from last year and burned them in a tiny backyard fire that smelled wonderful. He was gone doing some volunteer work for several hours and the kids and I had a wonderful time. We did a little gardening in our bare feet. Penelope wasn't sure what to think of it, she kept asking me to take off her shoes and then to put them on, to put her in the garden and then to take her out. There was a nice breeze all day and later in the day, the skies got overcast and threatened to rain. We squeezed in a quick walk as it started to drizzle and both kids thought is was wonderful. Micah had the hood on his sweatshirt up, Penelope was cowering under the stroller's canopy while chuckling about the rain. I spent a little time playing on the living room floor with Penelope as she explored the cash register, I spent a lot of time carrying her around in the baby sling because she wanted to be held. I cleaned both the dining and living room, vacuumed both rooms, did all our laundry and folded some of it. Before putting her to bed, I sat on the porch with Penelope and watched the pouring rain. Everything was perfect. 

Micah's Dream

Micah woke up just before I left the house for work this morning and when I went up to give him a quick hug before I left, he reported on a pretty mature, story like dream. It was the first time I can remember him describing a dream that it seemed like anyone else might have had.

He said there was a battle and that only the good guys were wearing hoods that were pulled down such that their eyes were covered and they couldn't see. The good guys didn't have any weapons, but the bad guys had swords and knives under their shirts on their backs. And when the good guys went to fight, they would just take the weapons from behind the bad guys before the bad guys could get to them.

It's a short description, but it seemed kind of cool.

Night time

This morning, just as I was finishing getting ready for work, Penelope started crying. I quietly went into her room to pick her up and put her back to bed. She put her head down on my shoulder. Then she lifted it up, looked at my shoulder, tapped it, and said, "jacket." I was wearing a suit jacket. I told her it was okay and time for night night, but she was on to me. She looked up, tapped on my glasses, and said, "glasses." I restrained a chuckle, told her it was okay, and successfully put her back down in her bed. Completely adorable.

Growing

Something has happened in the last couple weeks and Penelope has joined the conversational world! She most definitely understands everything we are saying. If I ask if anyone wants to go outside, she'll say, "Yes!" and start walking toward the front door repeating, "shoes on? shoes on?" as she goes. If I ask her to say goodnight to Michael, she'll say, "Night night, Dada," instead of just "night night." If I ask her to go get me something, she'll do it. The other day I was sitting on the sofa, trying to take a little break, and she came over, started pulling cushions off the sofa, repeating, "Jumping?" to convince me to pull out the sofa bed so that she could jump on it. Yes, I do pull out the sofa bed for them to jump on it, and it's a blast!

I think I heard her say her own name, Penelope, yesterday for the first time unprompted. Usually, I'll ask who she is and point to her and she says, "Me!" I say, but what is your name, she says, "Me!" and then she gets bored and stops answering altogether.