Four A.M.

This morning, Josephine woke up at 4 a.m.

Yay!

See, Sean and Billy and Jozy and I drove down to Sean's parents to get their dog Charlie, who we're going to watch for a week while they're out of town. Baby Jozy fell asleep on the way down, stayed asleep when put on her little bed, and Sean and I got to spend a much-needed Friday night alone, together.

All was well. Until 4 a.m., when one of the dogs heard another dog and then the other dog started barking and both dogs were barking and I woke up and then J woke up, squealed with delight to see two frantic dogs, and went off running. She looked like Charlie Chaplin, chasing Charlie around and around the coffee table, doing a chicken dance with her elbows, while I tried lamely to chase her down and convince her to consider sleep as an option...

What is it about being 15 months old that you can wake up in the middle of the night and have the energy of fully caffeinated, well-rested adult?

At 6, she fell asleep for half an hour. I did not; I had started coffee already. At 7, I took Josie and the two dogs on a walk, which meant my arms were outstretched in opposite directions (Billy urging forward, Charlie pulling backward) while Josie dove into muddy ditches and ran in whatever direction I did not want to go. See photo above. Dressed in her pink coat and hat, furiously trotting down the road, she looks like the Energizer Bunny... (the drum beating is my head pounding)...

Sean is still sleeping (it's 9 a.m. now), and he deserves it -- he watched Josephine all week, plus staying up and waking up early to get work done. I don't know how he's done it. We do have three babysitter interviews lined up this week, and I have Monday off, so hopefully we'll get into a more manageable routine very, very soon.

Not that this isn't wonderful. Josephine is a delight. Barry Manilow is playing (we danced to "Mandy" earlier); Josie is staring at pictures of herself and her cousins, pointing at faces and saying "Da-da"; Charlie is sleeping next to me; the sun is scraping the morning clouds out of the way. I had maybe four hours of sleep, but I'm ridiculously happy.

Amy
P.S. I discovered Josie has HUGE teeth all through her mouth, and more coming in... I never thought I'd be so proud and interested in dental developments... !