Sweet babies of mine.

I had the sweetest morning today. Izzy woke up while I was nursing Sophie at about 8 this morning, and he stretched real big and laid there sneaking peeks at me through his lashes, which were dangerously close to meeting over sleeping eyes. I put Sophie back in her cradle, and I scooted Izzy over so I could lay back down.

He snuggled up tight against my side, and buried his little head in the nape of my neck. We laid there for a while, then he stretched his head back and kissed my cheek. I smiled at him, and he took my face in both of his hands, pulled me towards him, and kissed my forehead. Then he lightly stroked my face beside my eye, just like I do to him to get him calm. I love it when he mimics the sweet things we do to him. Let's us know that he loves us too.

Then this afternoon we were rough housing and I got tired, so I pretended that I had fallen asleep. This was his cue to run up to me and slam his forehead into my mouth as hard as he could. Poor kid. My front teeth jammed his forehead pretty good, and he nearly bloodied both my lips. The force of him hitting me made my head jerk back and I pulled the muscle running from my neck and around my shoulder - it hurt for about five hours afterward. I couldn't get mad at him, of course, because he had no idea that he would hurt me or him.

Poor little Sophie was fussy today. I'm pretty sure she's going through a big growth spurt now. She's sleeping horribly, and just all of a sudden it seems like she's outgrowing some of her clothes. And her feet are finally growing! She is still in a size zero!!! At five months old! By this time Izzy was in a three.

I've had a couple of pictures taken of Sophie in similar clothes and poses as ones we had taken of Izzy at the same age. It's striking how much they resemble each other, even though she is darker and favors me, whereas Izzy is fair and favors Chris. It's even more striking to me how much smaller she is than Izzy. Small enough that I worry about her. If Izzy weren't such a giant, however, I'm sure I would think she was a perfectly normal size.

She and Izzy truly do make my heart sing. No matter how moody, or downright evil, I might be feeling, a hug from Izzy or a sweet smile from Sophie makes me feel wonderful. Izzy is such a loving child, and Sophie is so happy that she vibrates with delight whenever you so much as glance at her.

I am so lucky. Not only that I have such a great little family, but that I am able to mentally appreciate how lucky I am. I am so grateful that depression has never darkened my brow. I'm sure you all get tired of my many exclamation points, but that's how I'm thinking things - all happy and excited.

I just heard little footsteps in the hall and I turned to see Izzy walking towards me, rubbing his eyes, and looking so cute in an old t-shirt of my sister's that reads: "Requires Constant Supervision." I went to him and picked him up to take him back to bed and he said, "I want water."

I told him okay and he laid his head on my shoulder as I went to the kitchen and filled up a little cup for him. I handed it to him and he gulped it down like he hadn't drank in days. "More?" I asked him. He answered by laying his head back down on my shoulder.

I carried him back to his room and tucked him back in. He didn't make a sound. I think that's so adorable, him getting up just for a drink of water, and then going right back to bed. Poor kid hasn't learned yet that asking for water is supposed to be a delay tactic!

You know, I haven't leaked milked in AGES. But something about my first baby falling asleep on my shoulder made those mommy hormones kick into high drive.

I surely do love these kids.