Routines were made to be disrupted.

Just a quick story today:

Last night, Dadsie was out with friends (for the first time since, ummm, Zadie was born! For those keeping track, that's about 8.5 months or so. I'm glad they recognized him!) Getting both kiddos to sleep is somewhat like herding cats and NASA-like timing all rolled into one. To make things worse, both kids and I have coughs that strike juuuuust when someone is on the verge of dream-ville. Anyhoo, I lay down on the floor in Nolan's room to nurse Zadie to sleep while Nolan does his thrashing on the bed that drives out all his last bits of energy. Quiet music is playing; lights are out with just enough leftover daylight so we can see general shapes. Zadie is giving me those long blinks that turn into closed sleepy eyes. For reasons that are unimportant, I switch her to my other side to complete the zonking out process. Oops. She gets one look at Nolan on his bed and sits straight up and laughs. He sees her and *he* laughs. She crawls to him laughing and he crawls to her laughing. I'm laughing (though not crawling), he's laughing and she's laughing and though the bedtime routine is pretty strict, how can I put the kibosh on these two crawling around in the dark, laughing with each other - delighted to be in the same room?!? This goes on for about 20 minutes until it starts to wind down and the calming down period begins all over again. Sure, I have a fever and a wracking cough and want nothing more than sleep. But watching those two in the moonlight more than makes up for it.

ps These pictures are un-related to the story, but what's a post without some pix?