7:00

 7:00pm has become one of my favourite parts of my day.

Its when Sean comes home and our nightly routine begins: First, Sean and Lola spend some 1 on 1 time together while he gets her ready for bed. Then, Lola is passed off to me for her bedtime feeding. Sean usually doesn't have time to change out of his suit before changing Lola so while I was feeding her, Sean was getting out of work mode and into home mode. As he popped in and out of the closet, carefully hanging up his suit pants and what not, we would chat about our days by lamplight in hushed whispers, so as to keep the nighttime tone for miss Lola.

On Monday night, we hit a major milestone: Lola started sleeping in her crib overnight. And so, we had to adjust our routine accordingly. Instead of feeding her atop our bed (i.e. next to her bassinet), I'm now using the beautiful, oh-so-comfy rocker in her nursery (i.e. what I probably should have been using all along!), right beside her crib.

On Tuesday night, as Sean handed off Lola, he said "its too bad you guys are in here now, we can't talk while I change." I felt the same way. I had so much to tell him and so much I wanted to hear about on his end too. And I didn't want to have to wait until we were settled over dinner.

...So, Sean went and got some comfy clothes and some hangers and moved the operation to Lola's nursery. And he did the same thing yesterday night and again tonight.

Its such a simple thing and it only lasts for 15 or 20 minutes but I absolutely love it. Weekdays are so busy and hectic and so much seems to always be on the go. In contrast, to have this quiet moment with my little family altogether in one room, it just feels so nice. Its calming and settling and really helps me make the switch from day to night.

I think Lola gets the same feeling out of it to. I barely finish feeding her before her thumb is in her mouth and she's drifting off to sleep. Some nights its hard to put her down, I just want to keep cuddling her. She's extra snuggly when she's so sleepy. And she gets all warm and her breathing gets so heavy and she makes sweet little sighing noises, its heavenly.

It seems that our life with Lola changes week by week, month by month which means our routines change too. It makes me very aware of how fleeting this routine of ours is, how at any moment life can become too busy and take it away, alter it, force us to find a different time and place for our evening catch up. But I'm not going to get too ahead of myself. For now, I'm just going to savour the moments and enjoy every 7:00pm I get.