There is a FIRST TIME for everything!

Yesterday was full of FIRSTS. I left at 7am with my neighbor (and amazing friend!), Julie, and left the kids at home with Matt. It was the FIRST TIME I was away from the kids. According to Matt, they kids did great. Which I had no doubt they would. I was wondering if I would miss them while I was away, but I really didn't. I was only gone for a few hours and I knew they were in good hands with their Daddy. I am positive it will be much harder to leave when I go back to work at the end of July.

In the afternoon, we did a little grocery shopping with the kids and then headed to church. We put Michael in the kid's area. It was his FIRST TIME away from both of us and his FIRST TIME in the kid's area at church. Matt picked him up after church and the worker in his room said he did a good job playing and interacting with the other kids, but he got sad a few times and she held him. When Matt picked him up, he had a sucker. I didn't really think much of him eating a sucker at 7pm, but maybe I should have.... he was WILD when we got home!

After church, we had our good friends, Chris and Wendi, over for dinner. It was the FIRST TIME we had people over at night. We put the kids to bed quickly. It was the FIRST TIME we did a speedy bedtime routine. Between that, having people over, going to bed later than normal, and that blasted sucker, it was the FIRST TIME the kids didn't fall asleep withing a few minutes. After about 30 minutes of being in bed, I finally went up there to see what was going on. We kept hearing noises, but we thought it was kids outside (the windows were open). Turns out it was our kids. They were playing together in their room. Both kids were sitting up in their own beds with their shirts off (Michael had gone to bed without his shirt because he was hot... apparently Liliana thought it would be cool to have hers off as well... either that or Michael wanted her to join the club and took it off for her). The curtains had been pulled back and they were just giggling together. It was the FIRST TIME they played together like that when they were supposed to be going to bed. We finally got Liliana to go to sleep about 8:30, but Michael was still running wild. We moved him into our bed so he could talk himself to sleep there without bothering his sleeping sister. It was the FIRST TIME we had to separate them to get them to fall asleep! Michael finally fell asleep around 9:30.

The kids didn't sleep well last night. Liliana was up in the middle of the night from around 2:30 - 5:00. It was the FIRST TIME she's done this. I ended up bringing up her leftover hot dog from dinner and feeding it to her at the edge of her bed where the glow of the nightlight hit her face just enough for me to find her mouth. It was probably around 3:30ish when I left her in her bed. She was content to just play in her bed until she finally fell asleep around 5.

Michael woke up at 6am and was not going to be falling back asleep. In order to allow Liliana to continue sleeping, we moved him to our room. We were so tired from being up in the middle of the night, that we brought him in our room and set him on the floor. We told him to be quiet and wait until it was time to get up. He wasn't really into that. This was the FIRST TIME we didn't just get up with him. We "slept" until 7:30 when Matt brought him downstairs. He played while Matt slept on the couch. At 8:15 I joined Matt downstairs and we both dozed in and out of sleep while Michael played. Of course he chose to play with the loudest toy EVER. Okay, I am sure there are louder toys, but when you are tired, it seems super loud.

At 9:15 we finally got up. Matt took a shower and I gave Michael something to eat. Liliana got up at 9:45. It was the FIRST TIME she had slept that late. At 10:30 we had my aunt Sandy and cousin Allison over for brunch with the kids. They did great, but started to melt down around 1. We put Michael down for a nap first. It was the FIRST TIME he genuinely cried because he was so upset. I am not sure if he was scared or just overly tired. But after crying "Mommy, mommy" for 20 minutes, I finally went in there and calmed him down. He fell asleep within about 2 minutes of calming down. Liliana is now also taking a nap. PHEW, it's been a long day already!