A day in the life

This morning I woke up feeling fresh and refreshed from a solid night of sleep. Whoa!! Well, I did have my slumber disturbed not long after I had fallen asleep last night around 11:30 because Oliver needed to be cuddled back to sleep...then again at 5:30am because Oliver needed to be cuddled back to sleep...but other than that we all slept through the night!!! (With Daddy being the true all-night sleeper and not stirring once, of course. And yes, I have resorted to calling anything over 4 hours of sleep "through the night".)
Olives and I had a 10:15 appointment this morning, so we got ready quickly (which to the average human would appear to be not so quickly, but getting someone ready who is dead set on doing the opposite -aka a battle of the wills- blurrs the line of fast and slow). I went out to start the Jeep with time to spare, leaving some cushion in case Jeep thought the morning air was a little too chilly to go driving. Bingo! I calmly called Andrew and said to him, "'Uh-oh, the Jeep won't go!'" This is from one of our favorite children's books "Sheep in a Jeep" by Margot Apple, and I was hoping the phrase would never be applicable to my real life....dangit. Still no reaction from Jeep.
At lunch time today I found myself wiping my spaghetti sauced fingers on my pants (something I get on Andrew for doing because it's so childish), and thought, "Wow, I've fully crossed over into the world of Mommy." It's all about duty, not beauty, as my cousin Julie would say.
The most recent surprise from Oliver is his ability to walk. It's not that he's walking everywhere he goes (which would be too wonderful since it would mean not crawling through the muddy sidewalk water by the door), but he does take a few steps. It's like he's had it in him all the time, too...as if he's just been hiding it or denying it, and is now ready to embrace his talent. Here we go again...
Now Daddy surprised us by coming home early and Oliver is whispering animatedly ( is that possible?), "hi! hi!" Oh I love my family. There is no way I could have come up with this smash hit of characters -including our extended families- on my own! God is so amazing and good, doing "exceedingly more than all we ask or imagine." Ephesians 3:20. Amen and amen.
--Side note: in one of my favorite movies, Little Women, Laurie makes a comment about Amy's art being, "a mediocre copy of another man's genius". I don't want to be that person, so I try to tell myself that a real artist can recognize genius when they see it and expound on someone else's originality, therefore making it original again. I'm noticing all my quotations hoping that it's art...not mediocrity...