A Library Miracle

On the way up to the airport on Tuesday my mom and I stopped at the Orem Public Library to say goodbye to Josie (who works there). She took us through the new art gallery where I got to see an installation by my friend (?) acquaintance (?) tutor (?) colleague (?) AshMae (who taught the "Mine to Tell" course I took years ago, who I've visited with at BCC events, who I'm friends with on Facebook but don't truthfully know that well in real life). The theme of her exhibit was stay-at-home parenthood.  

It was fun to run into AshMae's work there. 

There were some things about the library that were very familiar, such as these stained glass windows in the children's section:

And there were other parts that were very different, like the play area in the kids' section and...many other things.

One very fun thing was that just as we were leaving the library I ran into my friend Kate—the friend I went to lunch with on Saturday and forgot to take a picture with! I had felt so badly about not grabbing a picture with her. We hadn't seen each other for about 18 years (somehow), so it was about time we saw each other again—and I didn't even take a picture?! 

Kate was on our study abroad in Amman (she's mentioned briefly on our Amman blog). It was so good to hear about the journey she's been on these past 18 years. She's got five kids now and is working on her PhD in computational linguistics. I've got six kids and am starting my PhD in language and literacy education. It was so good to talk with her about balancing studies and research and motherhood and church callings and...everything. 

Needless to say, I was very happy to run into Kate at the library!

Running into Kate made me think that I should run back upstairs and take a picture with my friend Rachel who was working the desk. Rachel went to high school with us (Andrew and I):

After snapping a picture with Rachel we headed off to the airport. Security at SLC is much easier than ATL! The flight was lovely. I was a little worried beforehand because the pilot made an announcement about some turbulence that we'd inevitably run into. My flight out to SLC was so turbulent—I felt like I was shaking in a box of rocks the whole time!—and we hadn't really been warned about that. But the turbulence on the flight home to ATL was, comparatively, a walk in the park (at least as the passengers). 

There had been a large storm in the area, so we had to dodge a few branches on the road on the way home, and many sunflowers that I had left standing tall were now leaning over. But there were also a few new ones, like this beautiful  (ring of fire?) sunflower (though I didn't take this picture until this afternoon):

Since Rachel was sick, Miriam was the one to stay awake while Andrew was picking me up from the airport. Phoebe has been a gem for Andrew—going to bed nicely and insisting on sleeping in her own bed. She still woke up for him once or twice every night, but insisted on him tucking her back into her own bed so she could get a sticker in the morning. He would simply tuck her in and play a few songs for her and then *poof* Phoebe would be back asleep. 

But since he wouldn't be there during her first typical waking, he thought he'd prepare Phoebe for the change.

"I won't be home when you wake up," he warned her. "But Miriam will be here. She will take care of you."

"No, thanks," Phoebe said. 

"Oh, sure," Andrew said. "It will be fine. Miriam has primary songs for you on her phone and she can turn them on for you and..."

"No, thanks," Phoebe said again. "I will just tell her to go away."

"But...she'll be babysitting..." Andrew pointed out.

"I will just go to bed by myself," she told him.

And—true to her word—that is precisely what happened. Miriam told us that she woke up around 11:45 and got up to find a parent...and instead found Miriam. 

"Let's get you back in bed," Miriam said. 

"No, thanks!" Phoebe told her. "Just go away! I can go to bed by myself."

"I can turn on music for you."

"Just go away."

"I will lie on your floor while you..."

"Go away."

"I'll just sit in the hallway, then, and..."

"Just go away. Go downstairs. Go to your own bed and I will go to mine own bed and we can just...be in our own beds, okay?"

"Okay..." Miriam agreed, but then she kind of hid in the hallway so she could spy on Phoebe to make sure she was actually going to go back to bed (instead of doing anything...weird (toddlers can be...creatively destructive)).

We stayed up too late talking to Rachel (the daughter, not the high school friend) and Miriam, and then went to bed. Phoebe got up around 4:00 and Andrew put her back to bed. Then she got up at 7:00 (which, I would like to point out is only 5:00 in Mountain Time) and refused to go back to bed anywhere but did want to snuggle in bed. 

She explained to me that now that I'm home our bed was also her bed and so waking up in our bed counted as waking up in her bed. We'll see how this whole sleep-training thing continues now that I'm home, but at least she had a good long stretch of independent sleeping while I was gone!