Run like the wind!

On Monday the kids napped horribly.  It all started when Ed came home to change before visiting one of our shut-ins.  That meant a trip up the creaky stairs.  As soon as he started down, Johanna started howling.  He was down for a couple of minutes when he realized he left his keys and wallet upstairs.  Back up the creaky stairs and back down.  Jo worked herself into a tizzy.

Knowing that she wouldn't settle down easily, I headed back up the creaky stairs to give her a hug and let her know that nap time wasn't over.  She fussed about it, but stopped the howling.  Unfortunately, that got her brother and sister going.  I hugged each kid, reminded them that nap time wasn't over, and sent them or put them back to bed.  Jo settled quickly, but Ephraim and Tabi were the problems now.  They did not want to go to sleep.  Unfortunately for them, their mama is at least as stubborn as they are.

After complaining for a while, they finally settled.  About a half an hour later, Johanna started making noise again.  Since she had napped well earlier, I decided to give up and get the kids out of bed.  I jogged up the creaky stairs.  I didn't even attempt to skip the extra-creaky steps or stay to the edges to avoid the louder creaks.  I get up there and Ephraim and Tabi are completely out.  I mean, creaky stairs, crying sister, talking mom, none of it woke them up, so I did what any mom would do - grab the loud one and run like the wind!

Jo and I snuck down the stairs and left the big kids sleeping.  It was great to have some one-on-one time with Johanna.  Unless she's nursing Even when she's nursing she gets no time alone.  She's always being poked and prodded by her siblings, hugged, kissed, choked, sat upon, drug, knocked over . . . do you get my point yet?  So, Jo and I had some Mama and me time.  We played on the floor and talked and laughed.  It was fantastic.  She has such a sweet little personality and is very playful.  She loves to giggle and is so into (almost) crawling right now.  I had a great 30 minutes or so alone with her.  After we had played for a bit, I decided to grab the camera.  It's rare to get pics of her without the attack-siblings around, so I snapped away.  I took pictures (in and amongst my playing) for about 10 minutes.

My camera couldn't decide if it wanted to use the flash or not, so there is a pretty good variety.  I love the colors better on the 'no flash' pictures, but I love the clarity of the 'flash' pictures.  Glad I got some of each.  Anyway, here's approximately 15 lb of perfection!