Friday, May 6, 2011

Pleasant Evenings

I've mentioned before that Peyton is a high maintenance baby. Before, right at around 8:00 every night she would become inconsolable. She would be so tired but would fight sleep with all her might. Of course by this time of night I would be tired from the day and trying to get her calmed down would absolutely drain me. It seems she is starting to mellow out though! The past few days she has been a very happy, smiley baby, even at her normal witching hour. With Nick just now wrapping up his soccer season, the evenings with a fussy baby have been long, and I'm hoping they'll soon be in the past for good.

Tonight was a very pleasant evening though. Making dinner with two kids in the house by myself while Nick is away hasn't always been easy. I've tried to plan easy things to make, or even things I could make the night before (when Nick is home) and just reheat. But tonight both my girls cooperated and I actually got to enjoy myself in the kitchen. Right after lunch Bailey was busy painting and Peyton was sound asleep so I went ahead and prepped everything for tonight. This is my favorite part. I love the chopping and dicing, it just calms me. Tonight when it was time to start dinner everything was ready, which made it so much easier. Again, Bailey was flexing her artistic muscles, this time by coloring

and Peyton was snoozing on the couch,

allowing me to make chicken enchiladas

and rice.

(And yes, I realize I should have made this yesterday since it was Cinco de Mayo...slight menu fail for the week).

During dinner Bailey decided she wanted to make her own "secret recipe", so she took her enchiladas apart and carefully put them back together again, adding some rice. My little chef.





Posing with her creation
After dinner I took the girls to see the last half of the soccer game. Bailey had a blast playing soccer herself and even played with a few of the other little kids...big step for my shy little girl!





After going into overtime and then into a shoot out, Nick's team finally pulled out the win for a trip to the final game of the tournament next week. Then we all headed home and snuggled on the couch while Bailey watched her customary before bedtime cartoon.

I could really get used to evenings like this!


3 comments:

Halee said...

Nicole, your girls are adorable!

Danielle said...

We have days like that to keep us sane! Sounds like Peyton might have had a touch of colic? I can certainly sympathize with you there. Here's hoping she's coming out of that phase now.

And I couldn't agree more with finding your calm in the kitchen. I love it too when I have quiet time in the kitchen! I usually get time in the kitchen, it's just not quiet or uneventful (:

Mama Smors said...

Bailey is so stinking cute with her little creation!