A typical morning

Kevin leaves for work before I wake up. He found a new bike path to work, and it's nearly twice as long as his previous one. Not many people would be as thrilled to spend even longer on their commute to work, but we're blessed to have so many bike paths around here. He gets to ride his bike nearly every day, and it doesn't take too much time away from our being together as a family.

After Kevin (usually), Naomi is the next person to wake up. This morning, she and Penny crawled into my bed and snuggled for a little while as I tried to wake up. Isn't that cute? It's only happened twice, so I can't say it's our new daily pattern. But it makes me happy to have two bright little faces greet me in the morning. They're so cheery and sweet in the morning. It almost makes up for me.

We get up and have "Square Cheerios" (Frosted Mini-Wheats) for breakfast. I usually eat my own then help the girls finish their bowls, too. There's never any need for me to serve myself seconds of anything!

The girls watched Kipper (or "Kipper da gog," as Naomi says) for an hour while I did some sewing. I heard this woman at the park last week patronizingly explaining to another couple that she NEVER lets her younger children watch TV, and she CERTAINLY never just plops them down in front of screens to just fill up their time. 

Um.... I do. I don't brag about it ("Oh, I ALWAYS let my kids watch TV. It's SOO good for them!), because I know it's not the best. I read in a book that kids' mental activity is slower when they watch TV even than when they sleep. Kids learn so much at this age that it's really a shame to waste hours on TV when they could be learning. But sometimes I just want some downtime, and the big square babysitter is one handy way to get it. It's not the end of the world.

After the hour of TV/sewing, I got the girls dressed and we went to the library. Well, I got Naomi dressed. Penny slept in her clothes, and since they're still clean enough, she is wearing the same thing as yesterday. I draw the line at 3 days in a row, but this two-day thing is at least a weekly occurrence.

So story time at the library was nice. It's not the most amazing program in the world, but it's good to get out of the house and see other people. We checked out 13 books, threw them in the stroller, then headed over to Costco, where we loaded down the stroller with a few cases of this and that. Wouldn't you know-- halfway through our Costco trip, the stroller wheels both go flat! Naomi is angry that her seat is filled up with food, and Penny refuses to get out of her seat. So I get to hold Naomi and try to push an overloaded stroller with flat tires to the check-out counters. Oh hello, lady. You want to walk upstream between me and the aisles of food? Allow me to go around you. You're welcome! And of course I chose the shortest line I saw. Deceptively short, though. The ladies in front of me were either stocking their nuclear fall-out shelter, or they'd never been to Costco before in their lives and they were hosting the company picnic that weekend. The end of the checkout counter was full well before they had even emptied out their basket at the beginning. And we got to wait patiently (i.e., only 1/3 of us were screaming) while she spent well over a thousand dollars at Costco. 

At least she wasn't a mega-couponer or something.
We made it home. I disassembled the stroller, put it in a Costco cart, and wheeled our stuff home like a hobo.

For lunch we had lemonade and roasted chicken. It was greasy and delicious, filling and fast. We read one of our library books in Naomi's bed, and now she's down for her nap. I'm chilling at my computer, and Penny is playing make-believe with her toys and teaching herself how to read.

Nah, just kidding. She's watching TV on the iPad.