Bits and pieces

It's hard to believe that November is halfway gone. Lily's six month birthday celebration was over two weeks ago, and we're still celebrating in our hearts around here. She goes to the doctor today, but she was weighed on Friday, and she's almost 10 pounds. My heart leaps for joy when I think about it. I never imagined having her with us for six months, let alone having her weight escalate into the double digits. It's so exciting!
Staying at home with her and Gabriel has been wonderful! I wish I could say that it's been easy. Lily is still not taking a bottle and still not letting me get the rest I so desperately need, but I am happy to report that last night she ate around 8:30 and didn't wake up until around 2. I'm still not smart enough to go to bed when she does, though. Instead, I stayed awake until around 11:30 to help Autumn with scholarship paperwork. As our little sleep sprites would have it, I woke up around 12:30 to Gabriel crying because the smoke detector in his room was making the dead battery noise. I probably got back into bed around 1. Lily woke up at 2 and didn't go back to sleep until after 4. I finally swaddled her and put her in her crib and just said "You're on your own," and crawled back into bed and listened to her root around for who knows how long. This is the third night within the past week where we've had to deal with Lily not wanting to sleep at that 2/3 o'clock feeding. I'm definitely trying to keep her awake today!
Yesterday was an adventure. Gabriel can now show his battle wounds. He fell out of a wheelbarrow at my mom's house and hit his head. He now has six stitches right above his hair line. He's such a brute! He cried when it happened but was such the trooper in the emergency room, saying "ouch" and "that hurt" only twice. No more tears. He woke up this morning, raring to go!
More about the birthday celebration. . .we had about 20 guests drop by throughout the day. It was a fun time, and I'm so thrilled that there are so many people out there celebrating with us. Thank you for coming or for stopping and saying a prayer for our family. And thank you to the person who left the surprise for us in the closet. Autumn found it the next morning. As you probably already know, you didn't have to do that, but Dave and I appreciate your generosity.
Thanksgiving is almost here, and there is so much to be thankful for. We don't have much materialistically, and my staying home will mean even less, but gosh, in other ways, we have so much more than that. Crazy as it may sound, it's all I need.

Lily on the day of her six month celebration