Passing time

The kids and I get a lot of calls from concerned people lately.  We really are doing OK, though we do love having so many people supporting us through Jason's job away from home.  Jason tells me that, from what he's seen of me, single parenting requires a lot of caffeine.  Thankfully this doesn't seem to bother Eleanor--she doesn't really sleep much during the day anyway and I haven't noticed a decrease in that little bit of sleep, or in fussiness or anything.  This is a very good thing.

We're keeping busy.  Last summer I worked while being home with the boys and didn't do a great job of keeping work separate from spending time with them.  I was so focused on getting the work done that I spent way more time working during their awake hours than I would have liked.  That's changed this summer.  I do some work during the day but mainly while they're in quiet time.  Most of it gets done after they go to bed.  I'm spending more time letting them have fun this summer--we've been going swimming a lot, going to our playgroup, just spending time with friends.  The kids haven't gotten really bored yet (of course, it's only been 3 weeks) and I find it's easier when they're not bored.  I have a couple of things I'm saving for rainy days or those times when they get really bored.

OK, I know you're not here to listen to me blather about things like that.  I actually have some more substantive posts that I'm slowly writing piecemeal but it's hard to find time to do this at all.  Ellie is getting more and more fun lately.  She isn't screaming as much of the time, to the rejoicing of my ears, and spends an awful lot of time cooing and babbling and such. 

She's taking an interest in toys...particularly in eating them.  Caterpillars are especially tasty when one is teething.

She's also decided that rolling front to back is all well and good, and she'd like to find out more about this whole rolling back to front thing.  In the last two days, she has managed to turn the lower half of her body from back to front and get her upper body onto the side.  All she needs is a little more upper body momentum to get that arm out from underneath and she will have officially rolled back to front.  Today I helped her with that last little bit of arm movement to get her onto her stomach, and she promptly rolled onto her back again.  It was basically her way of telling me "I've mastered about 3/4 of rolling.  One of these days, you'll look over and I'll be halfway across the room."  Because what I need is a rolling 3-month-old.

The kids are particularly cute these days.  Last night they were all sleeping in amusing ways, so I broke out the camera!  It's 95 degrees here (76 in the house).  The boys consisently choose to wear fleece and flannel pajamas.  I don't get it.

Last night Patrick also chose to bury himself in his blankets, because that's what you need in Atlanta in June.

Melkamu slept on top of the blankets but decided his feet needed the pillow more than his head.

And Ellie has been choosing to sleep sideways in the bassinet.  I put her down normally every night and she immediately squirms sideways.