Happy Late Thanksgiving (From a Bunch of Turkeys)

Some Photos

Amelia must have taken this picture.  That is the exact look he gets on his face every time he sees her coming. 

  C.T. lounging in the baby bouncer - looking like a teenager trying to act cool.

Lily making salsa with Dad.  She loves to help with cooking - and eating.

Amelia doing her daily scripture reading.  She has a fascination with scriptures and carries them around with her frequently.  Apparently she liked this page as she has marked it by folding it over so nicely.

Horseless stagecoach ride, anyone?

Hanging out after church on a Sunday afternoon.

Have I mentioned that Wes is a colicky baby?  He cries.  And cries.  But isn't he cute anyway?

Never too early to try and teach him some moves from "Just Dance Kids" on the Wii, right?

Look at these smiling experts! Could those plastered-on smiles be any bigger?  I think these kids are all naturals at my picture pose.

Occupational Hazard

I have a new blister on my hand today.  From my steam mop.  Does that seem ridiculous to you?  Because it does to me.  I know so many people who are fans of the steam mop, but I have to say I am lukewarm about it at best.  And the fact that I got a blister from it today didn't help its case.  It's so strange that I got a blister.  I mean, I've had that thing for over a year.  It's not like using it was an uncommon occurrence.  A couple of weeks ago I got two enormous blisters from the lawn mower.  That I can understand.  I haven't used the lawn mower since Amelia was a baby.  But blisters from house cleaning?  Something that I do routinely?  I would have thought I'd have calluses by now.  Oh well.  I guess I should look on the bright side and be grateful I have soft and delicate hands...

Seperation Anxiety

It's 1:00 in the morning and I can't bring myself to go to bed.  I'm sitting here in the office/baby's room, reading blogs of people I don't even know.  Every so often I will hear little grunts and sounds of a squirming little body coming from the sleeping baby in the room.  I think that's why I can't leave really. 

I want to be with my little baby as much as possible.  I spend a whole lot of time lately just hanging out with him.  Talking to him, holding him, protecting him from his loving siblings.  I don't know why, but tonight especially I just don't want to leave him. 

Maybe it's because so many of these random blogs I find are written by women who have had a child die.  I think a lot about what it means as a parent to have a child die.  I think about how it always feels so out of the ordinary when a child dies, but yet it happens so very often. I remember that it happened even more often not so long ago in history.  I reflect on the lives of all of those pioneer women.  A woman who had NOT experienced a child's death was certainly the exception then.

I feel so lucky for every day I get with these four of mine.  I try not to think about what it would be like without them.  But sometimes I just can't help it.  It's those times that I find myself in a baby's room at 1 o'clock in the morning, relieved to hear every toss and turn.  I dismiss the idea of leaving him for the night to sleep in my own bed, a whole hallway away from him.

Those Days

Does anyone else with little children ever have one of those days?  Those days when you really want to walk into your kitchen, grab all of the fruit snacks and cracker packets and dump them on the table, walk to the freezer and snip open all of the Otter Pops, turn the television on to PBS kids, and go back to bed for the day and let the kids live it up?  I was feeling a bit like that this morning.  But, I overcame it to an extent and made the little ones blueberry pancakes and made all the beds and made sure they all got dressed and gathered some laundry and fed the baby a couple of times in there, and then I did lay down with my little bundle and take a nap.  I LOVE taking naps with babies.  Of course that "nap" was interrupted for several reasons including CT needing to know how to make the sound come out of the computer since Dad hooked it up to speakers, Lily wanting me to take the plastic wrappings off of  the "Princess and the Frog" DVD that Tyler's mom sent her the other day, and Amelia wanting to know if I had washed her favorite blanket yet, since it got a little damp in the night.  I'm sure you can figure out how.  I finally fully committed to my day and spent some time on the treadmill and told the kids we were heading out to the swimming pool after lunch.  I'm sure the kids will have more fun doing that that than they would just watching PBS kids all day with unlimited snacks...or maybe not.  But I'll feel better about myself anyway. 

Summer

Things I Love About Summer:
1) No morning rush to get kids to school. 
2) No nighttime rush to get kids to bed.
3) Little tan bodies with bright white behinds.
4) Popsicles for dessert.
5) 98 cent strawberries.
6) Our annual family reunion.
7) Hearing the kids shout "Cannonball!" each time they jump in the pool.

Things I Loathe About Summer:
1) The heat.
2) The humidity.
3) Girls sweaty, straggly hair minutes after you finish putting in the pigtails and cute bows in the first place.
4) The electricity bill.
5) Dealing with wet swimming suits and towels all the time.
6) The heat.
7) The humidity.

Photographic Evidence of Progress

Hanging out in the NICU under the special light to treat jaundice (with his cool "shades" to protect his eyes).

While in the NICU he looked like this - IV in his head, feeding tube in his nose, etc, etc.  Plus he went down to 4 pounds 9 ounces. 

Once we got him home he was looking much more comfortable!  No tubes, wires, or anything!

He's just still trying to figure out what that whole week with the beeping machines and the bright lights was all about...

 P.S.  At his 3 week doctor's appointment on Thursday he weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces!  That's really good.