family matters

We don't have much family living in the same city as us, but we've been lucky enough to have family willing to cross the state of Ohio pretty much every weekend to see baby girl. This weekend marked Ellie's first slumber party at our house. Nanny, Jagee, Uncle TT, Uncle D, and Chubbs all spent the night. Ellie was a champ, with no issues falling asleep, and no crying once she was wrapped in her Miracle Blanket. Mommy and Daddy stayed up later than necessary watching a movie that wasn't that worth it, but got to bed around midnight. Stupidly, we ignored the dogs before we went to bed which meant that they hadn't been outside since around 7:00. Woops. As we went to sleep I said to David, "Do you ever think there have been 7 people and 2 dogs sleeping in this house before?"

Somehow, barely (and thanks to the concessions of everyone!) we made it work. Uncle TT had the "guestroom" as he's been staying with us for the past few weeks. Ellie's room converted into a room for Nanny and Jagee, filled with the air mattress from wall to wall. Uncle D slept on the couch in the living room. Baby did great. The dogs were not so awesome, but not too bad either. It was our fault they needed to go outside at 4:00 in the morning to relieve themselves. Alden's never too happy to sleep when he has friends over, so the early morning hours were spent wrestling with him, trying to convince him to stay in bed. Ultimately, we made it til 6:45, when we released the dogs, fed Ellie, then handed her off to her grandparents while we slept in til 9:15. Nice work, family!

I've always struggled with hosting people at our house. It's small, usually too hot (in the summer) or too cold (in the winter), we don't have cable, there's only one bathroom (as of now), and no mudroom or closet to store most of our messes. Since we've chosen to live away from most of our family but we want our family to be part of our lives, it's important to make people feel as comfortable as possible here. At 5:45 this morning, I wasn't so happy with this situation, but waking up at 9:15 to Nanny, Jagee, and Uncle D lined up in front of Ellie's changing table making and watching her smile, every frustration went away. I'll put up with no sleep, annoying dogs, and mess on top of mess to know my baby girl is growing up with all the love in the world. I hope our family feels the same.