A Typical Day in Abilene

8:59-9 AM: Waken to scratching or pinching of some sort. Roll over to see a chubby little red headed, blue eyed girl grinning a big good morning.

9-9:10 AM: Bounce on the bed, cuddle with the same chubby little girl and catch her by her diaper as she dives off the bed all while listening to her chattering.

9:10-10 AM: Get Adelaide some breakfast, eggs are her favorite, but strawberries are easier. Make some coffee while she's eating and allow her time to fill up her nighttime diaper. Drink coffee, change her nighttime diaper, finish coffee. Start on 2nd cup of coffee.

10-11:30 AM: Loaf in pajamas. Right. Not really. Clean up after Adelaide's strawberry breakfast. Do some housework while Adelaide is occupied with pulling each book off her shelf and "reading" to herself. Attempt to interest Adelaide in toys. Lost cause there. Grab my Rainbows and Adelaide's bumbo and set her up in the yard. Do some gardening, hang out laundry, watch Adelaide chew on sticks.

11:30-12:30PM: Read "Stuff Christians Like" aloud to Adelaide as she falls asleep, swaddled in my arms. Now I can shower and get dressed! Check email and finish off French press...

12:30-1 PM: Make Adelaide an Apple butter sandwhich....pb and j for me!

1-2 PM: Play with my favorite baby girl ever! Watch her pull herself up on everything and pull everything on herself. Daddy might stop home....Adelaide sees him walk through the door and gets so excited she crawls a few steps so fast before she remembers she doesn't like crawling, pushes herself back onto her bottom and scoots the rest of the way.

2-3:30 PM: run some errands, grocery shop, stop by the park and swing for a few minutes.

3:30-5:30 PM (more like 4:30, how I wish 5:30!): Put Adelaide down again to the words of "Stuff CHristians Like" and attempt to not wake her up with my laughter.

4:30-?: By this time, I'm a little bored and sometimes I am really wishing for someone older than 11 months to talk to. However I suck it up. Take Adelaide to the park for a run/walk. Feed the ducks. Go by Petsmart and show her all the animals.

Dinnertime: Can anyone say, "PB&J!"? Adelaide gets veggies. Sweep and mop under her highchair for the 4th time today. Maybe do the dishes. Probably not

2 hours till bedtime: Another unsuccessful attempt to get Adelaide interested in toys. She looks at her books again, barking at all the dogs or things that resemble dogs, growling at everything else, and then surveys the house for places to crawl, ahem, I mean scoot in, under, over, up... I attempt to pick up the house, wash diapers, hang more laundry out.

1 hour till bedtime: Set Adelaide on a blanket in the yard while I water the garden. Grab a glass of sweet tea and lie on the blanket while my offspring tackles me. Watch the sunset with Adelaide and try to explain the beauty to her. She'd rather give me kisses and lay her head on my lap. Mmm, how I enjoy this time with the sweet girl.

8:30-9:15PM: Bath and bedtime for my little buddy. I run the water as she stands at the tub and tries her hardest to climb over the side...she squeals with excitment. As I set her into the water she looks at me like I've given her the world.

Bedtime: Get Adelaide to sleep by singing her "Rise and Shine and give God the glory glory" all while thinking about what a happy upbeat child's song this is yet it's really about God violently covering the earth with water and everyone but Noah's family and a handful of animals drowning. Then I move on to "Only a boy named David, only a little sling" and again, 'didn't David chop Goliath's head off or stab him after he fell to the ground? why isn't that in this song?'...

This is a glimpse of what our days have looked like over the past month or so. We'll see how things change!