A Week in Training

Chris and I spent the past week in David's and Heather's shoes. They went to Puerto Rico to celebrate their first anniversary and asked Chris and me to take care of the girls while they were gone.

Torrance is 6 and she's in 1st Grade. I've always thought it was delightful to hang out with her, but this week I discovered what a really affectionate and pensive wonder she is. She loves to prance around and hum and tell you the details of her thoughts and what she's up to. Our morning routine was waking up at 8:00, getting dressed and brushing hair, eating a hearty breakfast of a single naked cinnamon Eggo, and waiting for 8:30 to come so she could go to the bus stop. My favorite part of that was listening to her blessing at breakfast. She seldom remembered to actually bless the food, but always remembered a million other things to pray about. Everyday I'd hurry to the window to watch her walk to the bus stop, and when 3:45 came I was looking out the window again for her bus to drop her off. Our after school routine was having a snack, doing homework and having "quality educational time" (per David's instructions), and then "free time". I enjoyed homework time the most. Toto was diligent everyday about getting her work done. She read to me for at least 20 minutes, worked on reading a poem that her teacher gave to her, let me quiz her on her spelling words, and did a math worksheet. If all that didn't take at least an hour, she showed me where some countries were on the globe or we'd read more. I was really impressed with how focused she stayed through all that. Torrance was open and affectionate and silly and funny. Last night when David and Heather got home, she had just fallen asleep with her head in my lap. I loved that.







Azalea got me ready for Olive, probably in ways I couldn't have otherwise anticipated. I kept saying to Chris, "How is it possible that we're going to love someone more than this?" The first night we spent there I kept waking up because I'd hear her shift in her crib or kick or something. But she didn't fuss, and she'd sleep for 10 hours a night. Chris and I loved getting her in the morning and feeding her and cuddling with her and smelling her. I loved that my day's work was spent mostly on meeting her little needs. She did have a couple lethal diapers, and she spit up and even peed on Chris. We thought it was adorable. We were seriously so enamored with her the whole time. She is so lovely, and her voice is so soft and sweet. She was asleep in Chris' arms when David and Heather got home last night. It was really hard leaving her.

I honestly thought I'd be a little more at my wit's end by the time this week was over. But I think we could've kept those girls forever and been just dandy. It makes me feel so excited for Olive to get here. Chris is going to be such a sweet dad, and I'm really beginning to think I'm more cut out for being a mom than I used to think. This morning Olive was moving like crazy, and she somehow seemed so much more real now after spending a week with Toto and Azie.