The baby has arrived and my day was... interesting!

So, my friend Patty delivered her baby today, in record time, I might add... I always heard second children come much faster during labor & delivery!

We don't have any details just yet other than it was a healthy baby girl. :)

So, our group is helping take care of Patty's oldest daughter, Ava, these first couple of days while mommy and daddy are in the hospital and I had her this morning through lunch.

The girls have grown up together and know each other, by name so, it was no surprise that Emily welcomed Ava with a big; "Hi, Ava" when she greeted her cribside (Emily was up all night and was still in bed when Ava arrived... that's another blog entry!) and that Ava was fairly comfortable being left here when Christine headed home for the morning. The girls put together puzzles, played "house" with all Emily's Fisher Price Little People, read books to each other, played with all Emily's stuffed animals, chased each other through the house, made beautiful art on Emily's new Art Easel and even shared a snack and a juice box! They really did entertain each other well so, my curiosity over whether Emily would be too jealous for me to babysit other toddlers was settled but, Emily did get a tiny bit territorial when Ava crawled up in my lap. ha!

It was so neat to see the girls interract:

• Ava being extremely gentle, quiet and calm while Emily was loud, giggly, and a spaz, running all over the house!
• Ava sticking close to my side, often not letting go of my hand while Emily ran from me every time I tried to just hug her
• Emily dragging out every toy she owns, all over the house, quickly moving between toys and often jumbling up all the parts & pieces while Ava sat contently with one toy at a time only moving to something else whem Emily stole what she was playing with. ha!
• Emily all to content to play alone, without any interaction on my part while Ava was unhappy to be in a room alone

Ava really brought out some wonderful qualities in Emily today like sharing: Emily gave Ava some of her Little People toys, unprompted and said; "that's so nice to share, Ava". Christine was even witness and it was so cute! Emily was also very loving towards Ava, trying to hold her hand and hug her and telling her throughout the day; "come here, Ava, let's play". Sharing and loving gestures aren't something we see a whole lot in our house these days and it really was amazing to see Emily behaving that way today. :)

I'll have Ava again tomorrow morning and possibly for a few hours on Friday and then, Patty will come home and they'll get to bond as a family!

Congratulations, Patty, Seton & Ava!!!