Sleep, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

Last night I had the pleasure of being awake every time the clock hit a :15. As in, 11:15, 12:15, 1:15, 2:15, all the way up to 6:15, when I woke Trevor to hang with Marta until 7:15. You read that right, it was Marta, not sleep-stealing Berit. No belly-ache, no teething, just happy to be up so I should be, too. Once an hour. Was it the one cup of decaf coffee I dared to drink yesterday morning? Was it her 20-minutes-earlier-than-usual bedtime? Was it the lack of sugar in her bloodstream (day two of no sweets, going strong) making her alert and not groggy? Who knows. I do know, however, that I'll now have the pleasure of doing without coffee of any sort for at least the next six months, and managing my day entirely around her evening nap schedule so that she gets to bed exactly at 8:30 p.m.

Today we went to Pond Hill Farm with my friends Kelly and Lori, Berit's friends Emma and Annie, and Marta's friends Andrew and Maggie. As usual, B was terrified of all animals nearby, and I looked like a bad mother when I didn't pick her up as she clung to my leg yelling, "Ow! Ow!" because the baby lamb walked toward her. Kelly took pity on her and scooped her up several times, so now she likes Kelly better. (This isn't true. She always likes Kelly better, not just today. In fact, if I want her to try a new food, I just say that Kelly made it and she eats it without hesitation.) (So would you if you tried Kelly's cooking.)

We got a ton of cute pics that I'll post soon, and pushed our six kids down and back an ankle-deep sand trail to the trout pond for a picnic lunch. I hope Berit is at the age where she will remember days like today, because it was fun and dirty and very kid friendly.

After naps, I needed to run a salad out to a friend's house for Habitat for Humanity. To coax Berit back into the car, I told her we'd get a "special treat." Of course I forgot the treat, so when we were pulling into the driveway, she said, "Oh Mommy, where's my treat?" And I whipped out a sucker from my diaper bag and said, "Look at this! Hooray!" She was pacified, thankfully. However, for the rest of the evening, whenever I said, "What fun things did we do today?" Or when Trevor said, "Berit, tell me about your day," or when I asked, "What was the funnest thing we did today?" thinking about the farm and friends, she said to everything, "I got a sucker."