It was a busy day. Morella did not follow her regular nap schedule so I ended up waking her up twice, once after she had only been asleep for 10 minutes. I hated to do it, but I didn't feel like I could cancel our plans. I had hoped she would take a nap later -- but she didn't. So I consoled myself by putting her to bed 15 minutes early. Something that would have been much easier if it hadn't been sunny out. It seemed like today I really noticed for the first time that the sun was still shining at 7:15. I pulled the shades and went along with the bed time routine but I still heard her talking in there at 8:00PM.

I kind of wanted to go bed myself early because I'm tired. I just feel feel weird about going to sleep before Morella. You know? I prefer her to be asleep at night before I am, unless Tim is around. However, he is at his Thursday night game.

This morning we went to the East Side Mom's club spring picnic. For about 20 minutes Morella stood shell shocked -- probably from too short of a nap -- clutching her springer webkinz dog that she insists on taking with her whenever she leaves the house. After she loosened up she went into Morella mode and just wandered around, looking a people, other kids, trees, or whatever caught her fancy. She's such a little free spirit. :D Since it was a special occassion, I let her have one of the small juice boxes that someone had brought. I was really suprised and proud to see that she was able to take the small straw out of the juice box and put it back in to take a sip! Way to go fine motor control!

The afternoon was our regularly scheduled Thursday playgroup. We met at a local park and the kids just kind of wandered around. Morella climbed a lot, and then just as I said to two other women that she hates swinging, she went up to Ann and had her put her in a swing and then started laughing as she was pushed. Great Morella, thanks for making me look like a liar. Eventually it became obvious that she was tired because she was getting slap happy. I had hopes of getting home to sneak in a nap, but dashed those plans when I saw it was 5:00 when I got home. Nutz. She ate a cheese cake cup, grapes and bologna for dinner and I ordered pizza and chicken kickers for Tim and I. She also had a few bites of pizza -- cool! Maybe one day she'll like it, right?

Anyway. I don't feel like I have anything to say. I sort of just want to go to bed. Morella is asleep now, I am sure of it, so I could. Today was the last day of her antibiotics. Thank goodness. I still haven't called to make an appointment with Baby's Debut for the 3d ultrasound. Tomorrow, I hope. I want to make sure that Morella gets as much sleep as she wants so I'll stick around the house and play outside in the back yard. I think we need disposable diapers soon, but that can wait until this weekend and we can make it a family trip. Sometimes being on the go all day/week makes me kind of want to just stay home. Besides, she loves our backyard just as much as any other place.

Tomorrow night we are meeting with a bunch of friends for a fish fry. I want to make sure she is as rested as can be for this evening out. Other than that, we don't have any plans for the weekend. It looks like it might be rainy. Maybe we'll work on the garden space. I plan on marking off the garden spot and enclosing it with bricks to make it look nice and offical. Since Morella loves spending time outside (as do we) we figured that we would make a big effort to work on the yard and make it really nice.

At the play group today we decided that we are going to have a Mom's night out. So next Tuesday we are leaving the babies to their Daddy's and heading out to have dinner at the Brass Ring at 6:30. Because you know, if we have to put them to bed then it really isn't a complete Mom's night out now is it? I'm really glad that I have been able to meet such an interesting collection of new Mom's this past year.

I don't feel different than the person I was before Morella came here, and yet at the same time she has opened up a ton of doors and opportunities (people and places) that I probably never would have met or done otherwise. It's great and weeks like this one, make weeks like the last worth it.