Celebrating sleep

I can't seem to find much time to blog anymore. There is lots going on, of course, between normal life and getting ready to move to Little Rock. Simultaneous daytime sleep for all three kiddos has been near impossible. In fact, it's almost glorious when they do sleep, I've caught myself wanting to take pictures again. I'll tell you about this day.

For a couple hours in the afternoon one day a week, two other moms and myself switch houses and have arranged a drop-off playdate for our four oldest sons. This has been so much fun for Sam and Zach to regularly have time with friends (and for me to have a couple hours to run errands w/just Eli or to enjoy the quiet while he naps). We rotate houses every week so it's always a bit different. It's worked better than I expected. Last week, it was our turn to host. The boys spent most of their time outside, since Eli was napping and I was washing windows. I recruited 3 of them to help wash our van and we generally had lots of fun. Needless to say, Sam and Zach were tired after their friends left, but I wasn't about to let them rest in their room knowing that they would wake Eli up. Instead, we read some books together and then designated couches for each of them as they looked at books quietly on their own. Before I knew it, they looked like this ... and I was amazed. Eli even woke up and played in the kitchen, and even hit Sam on the face at one point, but they just kept on sleeping. And, not to be left out ... here's a pic of the littlest man who's taken to sleeping on his back lately.