Oh, Karl

Wish I had a picture for this post.

After finishing some weeding, I glanced up at the kids' bedroom window.  It was almost 9 pm. Clare and Nora were sound asleep and Karl should have been sleeping but he had taken a nap in the afternoon and even with an 8:15 bedtime, he apparently wasn't tired.  Because the shade in the kids' room was up as high as it can go and Karl's little body, dressed in black 2-piece car pjs, was in plain view.  He was standing on an ottoman, reaching high above his head to rearrange the window cling stickers of bulldozers, dump trucks, boats and airplanes on the window.  Little stinker! 

He jumped when I entered the room, so intent was he on his stickers he hadn't seen me shaking my head at him from the front lawn.  Clare somehow slept through it all.  I couldn't be mad at Karl; that image of his little pajama-clad body in the window was just way too cute. 

As busy and crazy as life is right now with three little people under age five, I am soaking up all these days because these are also probably the cutest times - when Karl still loves to line up his cars on the couch and drive monster trucks over them: "Monster truck crush cars!"  He likes to play with Clare's play food after she goes to bed, making me sandwiches and burgers and pannakakku (a Finnish oven pancake) telling me "Too hot!  Blow on it!  Cool it off!" He likes to snuggle up with me and read books, usually ones about construction sites or monster trucks.  Oh, Karl.  Don't grow up too quickly.