Luke woke up this morning... early....

Not really a problem because I have been up since about 1AM.

But 6:30 is pretty early either way.

Sunday is Grandparents' Day.  Natalie will be back Sunday afternoon in time for the brunch I am making (yes, I cook!) for my mother and grandmother.

But until then it's just the little voice of Lukie coming from the other end of the apartment.  I went into his room a few minutes ago and there he was standing up, smiling and excited to see I was coming to take him out of his crib.  (He's still in a crib because I'm not a fan of the kids climbing the living room furniture while I'm sleeping.)

I picked him up to change his diaper and on the way, he reached out to turn on the bedroom ceiling light (they use a little bug lamp that stays on throughout the night). I stopped and thought about how lucky I am to have a happy and healthy baby.  So very lucky.  Changed his diaper and got him some milk.  Back to bed for Luke.  There's no way he was starting his day at 6:30!

Speaking of his crib... Luke knows he's the only kiddo in the house so he took a bunch of Natalie's toys to bed last night.  If only Natalie knew Luke had one of her Grover dolls in his crib.  I'd never hear the end of it.  Thankfully I never have to worry about Natalie sharing with Luke but Grover is very special.  I'm lucky I can hold Grover long enough to put him in the wash.

Nat is another healthy and happy child. I really did lucky out. She has ezcema but that's the worse of her health problems which obviously isn't much of a problem if you were to compare that with what some children in her pediatrician's waiting room have to deal with.  <a target="_blank" href="http://photobucket.com/"><img border="0" alt="Natalie wearing GEOX sneakers and Beautiful Futures tee at the bottom of the slide" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/victoria719/th_natslide.jpg" /></a>

I get a lot of emails asking where Natalie is... why she's "never around" or "what do you do with your kids when you travel every week".   One email said it "wasn't healthy to be apart from your kids so much."  I guess it depends on what you think is healthy.

I never travel for weeks without seeing my children. I have only spent more than 2 nights away from my home twice since Luke and Natalie were born.  When my daughter is away from home it's just to her great grandmother's house.  Same for Luke. Seems pretty healthy to me.  Neither of my children have a babysitter or nanny.  This summer Natalie went away after she turned 3 to spend time outside of New York.  Sounded good to me.  She was able to adopt a donkey, meet new children, and have a few experiences that staying in Manhattan wouldn't have allowed her to do.

<a href="http://www.savvymommy.com"><img border="0" alt="Luke wearing a Baby Energy tee in Central Park eating a twig" src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v238/victoria719/th_lukeeatsatwig.jpg" /></a>I do appreciate the genuine concern over the health of my children but they are smiley happy babies who like to eat twigs.  :)