And the award for patience goes to...

Ellie! Peter, Sue and Sarah arrived last night just after I put Ellie down for the night. As I was rocking and cuddling with Ellie, I was going over the last minute things that I needed to do before they arrived and creating a mental to-do list. I was also very worried that I was going to leave the dirty diaper sitting on the changing table (and who wants to sleep in a room with a stinky diaper?!) or forget to turn on her humidifier, which masks the noise from downstairs. So I was thinking "okay, grab the diaper, turn on the humidifier, take the empty milk cup. Grab the diaper, turn on the humidifier, take the empty milk cup. Grab the diaper, turn on the humidifier, take the empty milk cup." I put Miss Ellie in her crib, did all three things on my list and closed the door. As is somewhat typical, Ellie talked and played in her crib for quite a while. Damian and I were busy catching up with our guests and getting dinner ready and it wasn't until we sat down for dinner that I realized that she had been awake for two hours -- still happy and entertaining herself, but awake no less. At one point, she pulled the mirrored toy up from the side of the crib, put her head under it and just laid there for a while. I couldn't take it anymore, so I decided to go up and rock her to sleep, figuring that after two hours of trying, she obviously wasn't going to be able to fall asleep on her own. I went up, opened the door and found Ellie bathed in light. Strange. Ellie isn't able to climb out of her crib (yet) and isn't tall enough to turn on the light. Could it be that my pregnant pea-sized brain could only remember the three things on my to-do list and "turn off the light" just didn't make the cut? Apparently. Poor, sweet Ellie had been trying to fall asleep in the bright light for two hours -- never crying, never protesting, just hoping that if she played with her feet for long enough, she would finally nod off. I felt so guilty! We rocked for a few minutes, I put her back in the crib, turned off the light, and she was asleep before I made it down the stairs. Sweet, patient girl!