My new favorite toy

After almost 11 years of having a child in my home, I have just now discovered my most favorite obsession. A few weeks ago, my tech savy hubby bought me a video monitor. I wasn't too excited about it simply because it wasn't a necessity.
But now that I have it, I can not live without it. Ever.
I have spent more time than I'm willing to admit just staring at this monitor watching my babies sleep. That's right, babies. I have two recievers so we put one in Ashley's room and one in Faith's. I can switch from room to room and stare at them sleeping. Or I can watch them on a split screen. Or I can set it to automatically switch every 10 seconds.

That's right. I love it.

I have learned that Ashley moves like a crazy baby in her sleep and most of her noises that make me get up with her during the night, are just noises. And I have been getting up with her a lot less. I have also learned that Faith randomly sits up in her sleep, with her eyes open and just looks around. Let me tell you how creepy that looks at 2am.
I also learned that this is a handy little device to have when BOTH girls have the stomach flu. As fun as that experience was, I certainly hope we never do that again. But the video monitor was priceless that night.
And it was priceless when we put Faith to bed the other night and about 10 minutes later, she waved directly at the reciever. I love that girl.

We have plans in the works to leave both girls with friends this weekend. This was supposed to happen last weekend but then that stomach flu saga struck. So attempt #2 is coming up and as much as I'm tryin to not think about it, its all I can think about. Jamie, Caleb and I are going to go spend some time with Bonnie and give her some hugs and love. She is home from Houston after learning her Leukemia has returned. This sad, unexpected news hit everyone rather hard. It really makes you stop and realize just how precious life is. And how precious the people in our lives are. We have learned so much from Bonnie's battle this past year and are overwhelmed with emotions in regards to her strength, endurance and willpower. She is quite a lady. And I am so overjoyed that I have had her as my other mom for almost 16 years now. She has been so many things to our family and so many things to me. We are looking forward to spending time with her and praying she continues to feel well.
But I'm nervous about leaving my girls. Nervous and excited. And a bit guilt struck. I will be sending the video monitor with them. I love my friends who will have the girls. And I trust them wholeheartedly. Obviously, or I wouldn't be leaving my children with them. (those who know me, know I don't leave my kids. They are either with Jamie or myself) But these women are an exception and I trust them. I know my girls will be loved and cared for. I wonder if they will stare at the video monitor like I do. Probably not.
It really is a strange habit to have developed this late in parenting. I should maybe work on developing a hobby.