Plum Exhausted

What is it about sleeping babies? There's just nothing else like it. I think maybe it's the relaxed angelic expression on their faces mixed with the fact that it's peaceful and there is a glimmer of hope for a moment of relaxation. Sometimes I have to tear myself away and remind myself to do something productive in these precious moments, when I really just want to stare at them and think about how much I love them.

Lucky for me, Hudson is a rather good sleeper. He sleeps for about 8 hours at night and then nurses early in the morning and snuggles with me for a few more hours. Man, do I love his snuggles!

Emmeline, on the other hand, has never been a great sleeper. I couldn't get her to sleep through the night until she was 15 months old, and even now she wakes up in the night half the time. Sometimes I end up sleeping with her after she's had a nightmare about a "scary dinosaur" aka Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty, or something. She is notorious for fighting naps. In the photo above, she was feeling sleepy at Grandma Porritt's house. The doorway seemed like the perfect comfy bed.

She is awake in this photo, but barely. Sometimes when Emme falls asleep in the car and we don't want her to, I set her down on her feet and she sleepwalks for a minute until she wakes up. Shaye gets frustrated with me if she naps too late and then won't go to bed early, so I try to circumvent 4:00 and beyond naps.

Here is another late afternoon nap that I failed to circumvent.

Sometimes when we're driving, Emme demands, "Momma, hold you hand!" and I give her one of my hands and steer with the other. This particular day, she fell asleep holding my hand.

Unfortunately, Emme does spend a fair amount of time in Time Out--usually got clobbering Hudson, pitching a fit, or getting into something naughty. Sometimes I leave her in her room for a few minutes longer than I mean to and she falls asleep in front of her door. (She knows how to open doors, by the way, but magically forgets when she's in time out.)

Hudson loves his sister, but he also gets pretty nervous that she's going to squeeze him to hard. Here he was calm and loved being near her as she was sleeping. :)

This was in the middle of Old Navy on a Saturday when I was shopping with Shaye. I must have looked like an idiot snapping a million pictures of my kids in the middle of the store, but I didn't care. I will totally record memories at the expense of my self respect.

This one particular day, Hudson fell asleep in his bouncie. I always felt bad when Emme did this, but at the same time she looked so peaceful that I couldn't bear to wake her.

That same day, Emme was wandering around tiredly while we were talking to our landscaper. She told Shaye she was thirsty and he went to get her a drink, when he came back, she was zonked on the hardwood floor. The poor sweetie, we soon found out, had a little flu bug and threw up twice (both times in our bed) in the next few days. That was fun.

Thank goodness for naps and thank goodness for these darling kids.