First Day with Whitley

Actually, this first picture was taken last night.  This was Whitley cheering on her big brother, Brayden, especially when he ran in the "Point After" for a score at his game.  Woo Hoo!!!!

And, these were taken this morning.  It is crazy to have John home on a weekday.  With the way "days off" are allocated, we set aside as many as possible for vacation, and rarely is a sick day put in to place.  Consequently, John is never home, "just because".  However, his boss, Tyson, told him to take the last two days of the week off to recover fully.  What a blessing.  He's enjoying his free time fully, taking naps, having a birthday date with his mom (sorry for the late blog shout-out - Happy Birthday Leona!), and holding Whitley, on this, the first day of my time taking her while Travis and Steph are back to work.

Not long after the above pics, Whitely fell asleep - and she was content to stay that way for 3 and a 1/2 hours.  She slept through my walk with my dear, dear friend, Dawn (who I neglected to take a pic of....next time!).  The day turned out to be a beautiful sunshine-y day, but began very foggy (it took all of my willpower to not pull out the Christmas tunes...must-wait-until-the-day-after-Halloween!).  Dawn and I walked for nearly an hour and a half and took in the "Halloween-esqueness" (Dawn's word) of God's gorgeous decor.  

And, all the while, this was "Sleeping Beauty".

This is a pic that Kaela took today....

The rest of the day was absolutely delightful with Miss Whitley.  It is so hard to get anything done, not because she is a fussy baby (not by any stretch), but because I just want to look and play with her non-stop and tell her how perfect she is. 

I say all this with a big amount of sadness, though, in knowing that as much as I am ecstatic to spend time with her, the bigger longing would be that it wouldn't be at the expense of Travis and Stephanie's heart breaking in leaving her to return to work.   However, I can give a big praise on their behalf in that just today, Stephanie was told she will be able to take Fridays off at least through December (and potentially longer).   PTL!