Mom's special touch

Friday night for us involved dinner at Chili's, playing Lego's in the living room, reading some books upstairs, and going to bed.  Pretty exciting, huh?  After getting RJ in his jammies and Ryleigh in hers, we gathered in RJ's room for some reading time.  We have a book called "Counting Kisses:  A Kiss & Read Book" by Karen Katz that counts down from 10 with various places to kiss the baby.  It starts out with "ten little kisses on teeny tiny toes," then "nine laughing kisses on busy, wriggly feet," followed by "eight squishy kisses on chubby, yummy knees," etc. as it counts down to one kiss on the baby's sleepy/dreamy head.  RJ (along with Mom and Dad) decided that he should act out the story using Ryleigh as the prop.  It was very cute and here are a few pictures of the countdown.

Eight kisses on chubby, yummy knees.

Seven loud kisses on a pretty belly button

Six kisses on little hands.

Ryleigh put up with the "reading" despite the look on her face!  Next, we moved onto other books and moved Ryleigh onto her front side for some much needed tummy time.

Here she is listening while Dad reads the Maisy book and also trying to reach her pink stuffed frog.

Here's Ryleigh determined to get to her pink frog while RJ reads a color recognition book.

After the reading was through, I brought Ryleigh downstairs while Amy stayed up to put RJ to sleep.  Ryleigh was a pain.  She was not quiet, she wouldn't sit still, and she just wouldn't relax even though I knew that she was super tired.  I tried to work on the computer using one hand on the keyboard and the other holding the little girl for a few minutes, but that was a lost cause.  I tried sitting in her/our favorite big red chair.  I tried rocking her.  I tried pacing around with her.  No matter what I did, she was still loud, wriggly, and just wouldn't even consider falling asleep.  Then....down rolls Mom after RJ fell asleep, and almost instantly Ryleigh calmed down.  Amy took her and within about a minute, Ryleigh was sound asleep!  Oh, the special touch!

Here's to the power of Mom!
-Jip