Our favorite times of the day:

1) In the morning when they wake up (and by morning, I mean the 6:30-8:30 part of the morning, not the 1:30-3:30 part), and the sun is out, and they are stretching and screwing up their faces, and letting out adult sounding farts. I just want to hug them and kiss all over their faces.
2) In the middle of the day when they are both sound asleep and I can get something accomplished.
3) Bath time, when they are warm and sudsy. They get this look of nirvana on their faces when we pour warm water on their bellies. Keillor is a huge fan of bathing.
4) When I am holding one of them and he or she is asleep, their calm little faces snuggled into the crook of my arm, their little arms dangling. Equally perfect are the times when they fall asleep on our chests. Sometimes Emaline will grab hold of one of my fingers and sleep holding it.
5) Monkey time. Monkey wears Keillor’s old clothes and tells him stories, tickles him, and makes him smile. Emaline’s not into Girl Monkey yet.
6) Reading time. When they are lying down staring at the Black and White books like they are the most amazing images ever created.
7) When we are feeding them, and they are staring up at us intently, and we just know they love us.

Keillor reads his book

Monkey time

Bath time

Little Miss Em in the bath

While the white noise machine is nice, I have found a new ally in the fight against babies who should be asleep but are awake and crying: the vacuum. While the initial blast of noise is startling, the song of the vacuum quickly soothes the savage tot. Crying ceases, peepers close, and the only sound is a really loud vacuum. OK, so this works best during the day when the rest of us are awake, and it shouldn’t be used for sleeplessness lasting longer than four hours, but as a quick fix, the vacuum is golden. As I type with one hand, listening to the tones of my Hoover upright, I am holding a calm reclining tot who just minutes ago was screaming bloody murder for no apparent reason. Oh, wait, no, it was because despite the fact that she just ate, she heard the sound of her mother pumping more white gold, tot tea.