a snooze for the soul

Most mornings, Riley's "routine" (it's fun to pretend that we have a routine), includes a morning bottle, a mid-morning snack of the pureed variety, and an early lunch bottle. At some point after the snack or early lunch, I plop her down for a little nap. It's usually my first opportunity to get some things done without interruption and I always know, by 8 a.m., what I plan to do with that little bit of luxury time. Yesterday was cleaning, today I was scheduled for a run on the treadmill. As she devoured her early lunch bottle today, she fell asleep in my arms. This happens quite a bit when she's "on the boom" (no surprise aviation analogies abound in this household), but she usually wakes up as soon as you try to take the bottle away from her mouth. Today though, she was out. Cold. Thinking about my good fortune...that I could attempt getting her settled down sans swaddle and binky...I got up slowly and started walking toward the nursery. But once I got to the edge of the crib, I didn't want to put her down. So, I just started rocking her and staring at her beautiful face. I made my way over to the rocking chair and very slowly reclined it and shut my eyes, knowingly forfeiting my free time. She only slept for about 20 minutes and she was up again just as I started to doze off, but it was well worth it. There is an entire lifetime to cross menial things off daily lists. Time with my baby, as a baby, is precious.