Will This Post Get Published?

I've lost track of my number of unfinished drafts that sit in my list of blog posts. It's hovering somewhere around three zillion.

My brother and sister-in-law were in town for a visit this weekend. They got in on Thursday last week and left this morning. It was so great to be able to chat with Anna, make fun of Ben, and hang around with my three crazy nieces. Anja had a fabulous time with all of her cousins. In fact, she had such a blast that at the close of their visit, in keeping with her true fashion, she threw up! Good times!

No, but seriously, I have to do a little posting about her wonderfulness. Yesterday Martin took the bus to work, so I had the car all day. Shortly after the girls woke up I hurried them into their clothes and we went up to Ooma's house to start our day. Anja played beautifully with her cousins, and in fact, there was an hour or so--AN HOUR OR SO (!!!!!!)-- in the upstairs playroom when Anna and I just sat and talked after Julia and Greta had both fallen asleep nursing and Zita, PeterXavier and Anja played together so happily that just thinking about it makes me feel all bubbly inside. WARM FUZZIES!!!!!! After awhile, Sarah, Anna and I ran a couple of errands just with my girls and Bella with us, and I took Martino his lunch (thanks to Sarah who drove me there) and after that, my mom told us that she and my dad were taking us out to dinner, so I headed home in hopes of getting Anja a short, late nap, just to give her a boost to make it through the rest of the evening. I tried our usual routine, and she was too wound up to sleep. So I went for a little drive, and she just sang songs and recited all the names/sounds of her family members. I was frustrated, thinking the night would be a complete bust. BUT I WAS WRONG! SO WRONG!! Usually, on no-nap days, Anja starts melting down around 4:00 and I begin counting the seconds to bedtime. Yesterday, however, 4:00 came and she came to me with her little doll stroller loaded up with friends, asking for a walk. Greta wasn't sleeping either, so I put Greta in her stroller and the three of us walked over to the library. Anja was perfect. We went to the kids section and straight back to the board books, where she sat down and "read" book after book after book. (She said she was reading to Greta.) Then when Greta started fussing, I told Anja it was time to go and asked her to stack all the books on the edge of the bench we'd been sitting on. She immediately hopped up and collected all four thousand fifty board books and stacked them neatly on the bench. Then she got behind her stroller and headed for the door with her dolls. A-MAZE-ING. I am telling you, this has never happened before. I usually try to not go to the library much because it seems to make Greta grumpy, then Anja throws a fit when it's time to go, and those librarians tend to be a little grouchy themselves, so I most often feel it's best just to avoid the idea altogether. But yesterday changed my mind. Yesterday was great!

So then it was about 5:00 and Greta went down for a nap and Anja played and I don't know what I did until 6:00 when G woke up and we went up to my parents house for a quick stop before we had to pick up Martin at 6:30. I still can't believe how awesome Anja was. 6:30 is her usual bedtime on days with no nap, and here she was, complying perfectly with my every suggestion! It was a quick stop, she happily left to pick up Martin, and we met my family at the restaurant where Greta just hung out in her carseat and barely made a peep, and Anja ate a little bit and just seemed happy to be alive and with her cousins. It was fabulous!! Just fabulous! So fabulous, in fact, that after dinner we jammied up the girls and as we were driving home, Martin asked if we wanted to stop and get Anja a treat for being such an incredibly good girl all day. So we stopped at Target and intended to get her a Schleich animal, but she chose (oh, gee, you think?) a baby doll instead. It's actually a cute little one that we call "tiny baby" and she seems to reeeeeaaaalllly like it. In fact, Tiny Baby slept in her bed last night!

....until she threw up at 1:00 and me fussing with her woke Greta up and so the whole family was up until after 4:00. But you know what? It was amazingly pleasant. Anja wasn't really sick. She threw up twice, we gave her a bath and read books for awhile and she was her old perky self when we went back to bed at 4:00. And Greta, Most Awesome Baby in the Universe, was perfectly happy the entire time, until it was time for bed again and she nursed to sleep in a matter of minutes.

And if that wasn't great enough, both girls went down for a nap within the 10:00 hour this morning. Greta is just now waking up (as I am hearing through the monitor) and Anja is still asleep. With all that empty time I have been SO PRODUCTIVE. I've done laundry, cleaned the bathroom, washed the dishes.... whew! It's been a very good day.