Lint Catcher

Garrett does not seem to like sleeping in his cradle. We have tried to put him in it several times, but he only stays asleep for 5 minutes or so. Maybe he knows we are not at home, so he wants to stay close to the parents! The same is true with our other baby. Katie always sleeps in bed with us when we stay somewhere, but she'll never stay in bed with us at home (unless its just one parent in bed).

This morning I slept in until 1pm! Andrea and Garrett were up at 10:30, but they let me sleep. We had a caprese sandwich for lunch, followed by bread pudding with homemade vanilla sauce, hot tea, and pepparkakor (Swedish Ginger Snaps). Garrett loves to be bounced like he is riding on a horse, the faster and wilder the better. While Andrea was playing with Garrett she sang "Giddy 'up, giddy 'up, giddy 'up, let's go!", which prompted me to continue singing the song, Sleigh Ride. Andrea did not realize that that line came from a Christmas Carole. I tried to teach Andrea the words, but we soon realized that Andrea is not an auditory learner. It has become Andrea's favorite Christmas Carole, and I promised to write out the lyrics for her.

We have been noticing lint in Garrett's toes for some time, but today it is especially bad. In fact, today he even collected lint between his fingers because he often grasps things and then keeps his hand closed, trapping lots of lint. His red christmas pants create a lot of it that got stuck everwhere.

By the time we were thinking about packing up it was 3:30pm and we feared we would hit rush hour traffic home, so we decided to stay until it passed. However, we did enlist Mariann's gardners to help me load our couch into the Explorer. We had hoped to make it home in time to ask our neighbor, Cy, for help carrying the couch into the house, but we did not leave Coto until 9:30pm.

Garrett woke up upon arriving home, but we needed to unload the couch together, so we entrusted him to our faithful friend, Mr Vacuum Cleaner, who sang his monotonous song to Garrett and put him to sleep. With Garrett and Katie staying warm upstairs, I brought in all of the pillows, while Andrea swiffed the floor where the couch goes. I pulled the car up as close as possible, and we carried it into the house. The hardest part was lifting it above waist-level to clear our back gate. Andrea's elbows were sore from baring so much weight and I felt guilty for having her lift it.

Once we attached new floor savers on the bottom, we slid it into place. We spent some time rearranging the pillows to try to find the right look. The new pattern is very elegant and warm and goes beautifully with the lighter color on the wall and the wood laminate. The seat cushions have gone from being too squishy to being a little too firm, but I am sure that sitting on the couch for a bit will soften them up.

Just as we sat down on the couch for the first time, Garrett started waking up. Andrea got ready for bed and fed him, part of their nighttime ritual. I took the opportunity to play with our new bottle sterilizer and start some laundry, then I came to bed around Garrett's second night feeding.

Since Garrett went to bed before opening his Hannukah gift # 4, we opened it the next day. It was a Play'n View with lights and sounds plus a mirror for my car. Now both Andrea and I will be able to see Garrett when we drive alone and he will have some fixed entertainment for car rides.