The sun lives with us.

As I wrote my previous blog entry, I stole a moment or two in the bedroom to check on Irini. She was put to bed by Natalia who took off for a bachelorette party of a friend. She gave me a kiss and told me that Irini isn't sleeping, but is just roaming around her bed. I went in there to check on her. Irini was, in fact, moving around with the pushing of her legs. She tends to go around in circles that way, but doesn't seem to mind. She saw me as I stood there and gave me a massive smile, somewhat hidden by the four fingers that she so effortlessly held inside her mouth. I smiled back and watched her for a while before leaving quietly.

I returned a few minutes later to see our little baby putting herself to sleep. She has learned how to do it now, by placing one or more fingers in her mouth and sucking furiously at first and more intermittently as she lulls herself to sleep, and moving her opposite hand and placing it gently around her nose. I am not sure what it is that she thinks she is holding, but adorable it is for sure. When we were doing ultrasounds when she was still in Natalia's womb, for moths we could not see her face because her hand was in the way. We've realized that this look, the one she has now, is probably exactly why it was the she could not be seen. But, really, for the image of her putting herself to sleep, I would happily give up 6 months of ultrasound darkness.

I write on. She begins her night's sleep. She will wake up for a 10 minute period sometime in the middle of the night and then, at about 8 am we will be there to witness her return to the light, where her body will shift this way and that as it stretches every possible muscle that it can, she will flop from one side to the other and then she will look up, trying to focus as well as she can, and see us smiling at her, at which point she will share with us her huge smile, and bring the sun into our very bedroom as she does each morning. How fortunate we are to have her. I smile just writing about it. :-)