sometimes it's the little things

Gabriel is weaned.

He was the latest of any of our little ones, at 16 months.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't completely ready to be done nursing him, and yet of course there's a little twinge of sadness and loss.  But mostly I'm thrilled.

The last feed which was dropped was the pre-breakfast session.  Because he is now weaned, I've beeb able to slip back into my old, pre-Gabe morning routine (mostly).   The key to that is that I come downstairs around 7:30 AM, serve breakfast around 8:00, and we can easily clean up, get chores done, and begin school by 9:00.

I realize this may not sound very exciting to you.  But trust me, I am tickled pink.

It just works so much better for us.  When I don't get downstairs until 8:00, I always feel like I'm running late.

I tend to get cranky when I'm running late.

homemade sourdough English muffins

Several days this past weekend found me in the kitchen alone as I prepared our first meal of the day.  "Alone" sounds a bit bleak, let me rephrase.  I was by myself.  The children were upstairs with their dad, even our little toddler-baby.  I could listen to a podcast, or some music, or just soak in the silence as I bustled around my domain.  It. Was. Awesome.

That isn't the way of it every day, of course, but even so - it's so nice to have that extra time in the morning.  Sometimes I even have a few minutes to sit down and blog before heading downstairs to fire up the stove - now that's luxury!

Gabe is happier in the mornings, too.  And he even had a stretch of several days when he slept until 7:00 AM, which was a rarity.  He was so cheerful with that extra hour or so under his belt.  A beautiful, beautiful thing!

Yeah, sometimes it's the little things.