Quiet...

...and we'll see how long it lasts. Lily's toward the end of a nap, and if little boy makes it til five before waking wanting to eat, I'll be surprised. But I will take advantage of a couple of quiet moments to reflect here.

It has been two and a half weeks since Jack was born, and almost two weeks since we came home from the hospital. All in all, I think things are going well. Having my mom here has been an indispensable help. She's done a lot with Lily, from taking her out mid-day on little runs to the store to lifting her for me since I'm not supposed to yet. She is also a one-woman army when it comes to helping me get projects done around the house. She has helped me get so many things done! Pretty amazing. I am also feeling like I'm getting very spoiled with all of her help...she's allowed me to get a lot of rest and to stay off my feet a good deal. I'm feeling better each day, though it's still painful if I do too much, which sometimes makes me wary. Life is returning to normal, and I am starting to see the light of a routine at the end of the tunnel.

Evenings are particularly good. Lily usually naps until 4:30 or 5:00, and then we play, then have maybe one Baby Einstein, then dinner, bath, story, and bedtime. It is feeling comfortable. In the midst of it, I usually feed baby Jack, he hangs out and has some "awake time," and then he takes a little hap. Routines are the key to sanity for me. I need to work out a few more during the day, and once my mom leaves, I'm going to have to find alternatives to going out every day with Lily. We usually run an errand or have a playtime with someone just to get out of the house between her morning and afternoon naps, but I don't know if I'll be able to do that with two. I've been thinking of seeing if some friends want to set up a couple of playdates. Lily has so much more fun if there are other people around; who can blame her! Right now I'm trying to establish Jack's routine, but once I do, he'll be a bit more flexible. I just have to take it one day at a time.

I'm enjoying the rainy weather today, and amazed at how fallish it is. Last August we had a terrible drought and it was very hot, but this year it's been pretty mild. We have had a tremendous amount of rain in the last day--maybe eight inches--and the tree out front dropped an October amount of red and orange leaves. It looks like fall came to our front yard--but the weird thing is that we're the only ones. A branch may have turned here or there, but our maple is the only one that decided it was fall! I think the poor tree is just stressed from the lack of rain all summer, and then the sudden change in weather may have tricked it into thinking it's October. We have a pile of leaves covering the front lawn. Oh well; fall's my favorite season here anyway.