Happy Valentine's Day!

This morning, Macie woke up at 6:15a. On a workday, this would have been just fine, since I would be ready to get up anyway. But someone should have told Macie it was SATURDAY. I let her talk to herself in her crib until 6:40a, when I had finally convinced myself that she was not going back to sleep.

After nursing her, Macie and I headed back to my bed for a bit of lounging before Ivie woke up. We engaged in some fascinating ring play (fancy name for putting a bunch of links together and letting her chew on them) for about 30 minutes. At this point, it was 7:30a, and Ivie had still not woken up. Then Mac started rubbing her eyes and, 5 minutes later (7:35a), she fell fast asleep holding my hand. Very sweet. Not to mention that I thought that I, too, might be able to steal a quick early morning nap. Double sweet.

A mere 5 minutes later, I heard Ivie talking in her room. It sounded like she was reading her "Best Friends" book, as I heard her saying "Lady and Tramp, Lady and Tramp" over and over. Knowing that she was just seconds from calling my name, I ruled out all thoughts of a nap. Macie, on the other hand, was still sleeping soundly.

Turns out that Ivie continued to read her book to herself without calling my name for 35 minutes! Amazing. And for all 35 of them, Macie was sprawled out sleeping next to me and holding my hand. I was lying there contemplating what a great start to Valentine's Day this was. Really! It was a bit surreal, kind of how I would have scripted it had I known that it was REQUIRED to start with Macie waking up at 6:15a.

At 8:15a, after a 40-minute nap (typical), Macie rolled over, opened her eyes, and gave me a huge smile. Ahhhhhhh, her face said, what a great nap! So the two of us got up and went into Ivie's room. And were greeted with a hearty, "Good MORNING!" from Ivie. I told her Happy Valentine's Day, and she said, "Happy Tanentine Day, Mommy!".

And so our day was off to wonderful start.

Now for the part that makes this sound more like a Herman family story and less like a fairy-tale...

Since Ivie's totally in big-girl underwear during the day now, we haven't purchased diapers for her in a while and are using our left-over, much-more-expensive, Pull-Ups at nighttime. However, we have not yet required that Ivie give up her habit of drinking a crazy amount of water during the night (I got called into her room on a refill run at 1:15a this morning). Drinking 2 sippy cups of water, not waking up for 12 hours, and wearing less-absorbent-than-diapers Pull-Ups are not a good combination...

As Ivie crawled out of bed after her exclamation of holiday wishes, I, out of the corner of my eye, noticed that her sheets were slightly discolored. The second, and more careful, glance proved my suspicion to be true. She'd wet through the Pull-Up, through her pj's, and onto the sheet. Thank goodness for the plastic mattress cover.

So my fairy-tale Valentine's Day morning turned into a morning of changing Ivie's bed while the girls played together in Macie's crib. Guess it was time to switch out her sheets, anyway.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! Here are a couple of Valentine's Day pics for you. Daddy, after your meetings, be sure to check out the pictures on the blog. The last one is especially for you. We love you!