The girls and I have had some pretty good days. It was awesome to have Daniel all to ourselves (well, ... I mean, that he didn't have to go to work) for a few days in a row. Basically New Year's Eve to Sunday. I told Daniel that it wasn't just that it's nice to have some help with the girls; it was also just nice to have him around. Even if he were home working, and not interacting or helping, it would still be nice.
On Saturday, we slept in, put Christmas away and put Brooke down for a nap. She took a pretty good one, so in the afternoon, we went out. Just to do a little shopping. We went to the mall. I exchanged my Bath and Body Works lotions that I got for Christmas for several bottles of body wash. The whole mall was having super sales, which I found odd. The week after Christmas. Anyway, we went to a few other places, looking for yoga pants for me (some that would actually fit and didn't need to be altered ... not an easy task, given my unbelievable height. We were not successful that day) and a new comforter for our bed. And, of course, Daniel took Brooke on the merry-go-round there. We had a good time. Camille slept most of the time. She doesn't especially love being in her car seat, but once the car gets moving, she generally falls right to sleep. And then she continues sleeping just fine as we stroll her around places. We got home that night just in time to feed Brooke a little something and put her to bed.
Sunday was fairly uneventful. Church was good. Brooke loves going to nursery, and all the leaders are quite smitten with her. She's always anxious to get going while we are in Sacrament meeting. Daniel had a new class. He teaches the 11-12 year-olds in Primary, and it being the start of a new year, he had all new kids. He's a pretty awesome teacher. He team teaches with another man from the Spanish Branch. One day when his partner was going to be out of town, he asked me to go to his class and be his team teacher for the day. It was fun to watch him teach those kids. He was really great at it! He was clear and simple in his teaching, and he encouraged the kids to do better.
After church, Salvador came over for dinner. I made butternut squash and sage risotto (YUM!) and we had a good time catching up with him. We haven't seen much of anyone since we had Camille, which is understandable. But I think Daniel wants us to start reaching out to people again. And with Camille being such a good baby, I suppose it's entirely possible. We're starting to get into a bit of a groove.
Last night, we went to a baptism of our friend, Christine Liu. She's a Chinese girl who has been investigating the church for many months. The missionaries came to our house to teach some of her lessons, so we got to know her a bit. She's been waiting for her mom to get home from China so that she could get baptized. Her mom is ready to join the church, too, but some family issues have come up. Anyway, Brooke took a late nap, luckily, so we carted the girls off to the baptism. Brooke was really charming the people in our vicinity. She kept singing, whether or not the piano was playing. We tried to get her to be a bit quieter, but we were only partly successful.
Brooke has been so cute lately. The past few days, she has been insisting on carrying around the little copy of the Book of Mormon that we've been reading with her, and also my old slide cell phone. I just let her use it as a toy, since I got my new phone a year and a half ago. It's so funny. This morning, she wanted her scriptures, her phone, her lips (chapstick) and her quarter. It was a little much for her to carry in her little hands, so I had her grab her little purse (the one I made her) to put it all in, and she carried it around for a while. But mostly she likes to carry her phone and Book of Mormon.
Today we had a great day. In the morning, we cleaned up a little (I did my designated chores for the day) and read in her new favorite book, the princess book she got for Christmas. She super loves that book! She mostly wants the stories of Ariel. I try reading other ones to her, and she always asks for Ariel. Sometimes she allows me to read stories of Belle, but not much. :) She asks to read that book all the time.
Camille usually sleeps the whole morning away, and I always wake her up around the time I put Brooke down for a nap, just so I can feed her. But this morning, she didn't sleep so well. So we brought her out into the loft to play. We pulled out toys to dangle in front of her face, we read her some books, we talked to her. Brooke was fun. She wanted to lay down next to her and read next to her. While she was still awake, I gave her and Brooke a bath. Brooke had a bath yesterday, but she always wants to get in with Camille. Before Brooke got into the bath, I could tell she needed to poop, so I held her over the toilet to poop in. It was very exciting. I gave her a treat later for going poop in the toilet. We're hoping she feels more motivated when she has little experiences like that.
It's been a rough sleeping day for Camille. She usually sleeps a ton. But today she hasn't slept for long stretches, except for this afternoon. While Brooke was napping, I nursed Camille to sleep while watching "Castle" and then held her for a while just letting her sleep. I put her down in our bed just before Brooke woke up, and she slept for the rest of the afternoon while Brooke and I played. We went outside to blow bubbles and throw balls. There are a couple of neighborhood girls that really love Brooke and think she's cute. Daniel has taken her out to play with them before. They found us while we were outside today, and they came to play with Brooke. She had a really good time with them ... up to a certain point. She liked throwing balls with them and blowing bubbles. But when they started wanting her to play things she didn't understand or do things she didn't feel comfortable doing, she was done. We went inside and watched "Frozen" instead, after I woke up Camille to feed her.
Today was laundry day, so tonight, Daniel and I have been teaming up to finish. He did all of his ironing, and I folded everything else. I also cleaned up the kitchen from dinner. Camille is really upset tonight, probably just over-tired. Poor thing. She's been upstairs screaming, and Daniel isn't having much success calming her down. I should probably go help. I am sure nursing will help her to calm down. I've been kind of sore lately, though. I think she kind of gnaws on me a bit.
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