Catching Up

Hello, Blog Friends!! Life has been a blur for our family for the past two months...yes, Abigail Jane is two months old this week! She is doing really well, despite her current sinus infection. She is smiling now and just developing her coo, which has to be one of the sweetest sounds in the world. She smiles mainly for Eric and me, but this week she's started smiling at the kids and even smiled real big for Aunt Marika the other day.

Nights are getting better...she's sleeping seven hours pretty consistently. She usually wakes up around four or five and then we're good to go until the kids get up at seven. My only bone to pick with her right now is that she is very fussy in the evening; usually between the time the other kids go to bed and about ten o'clock she nurses off and on and just fusses. Which means I get nothing done with my only "free" time of the day. Which inevitably means that as soon as I DO get her to sleep around ten, I don't go straight to bed because I finally have time...and you get me here blogging at 11pm instead of snatching up every wink of sleep I can!

But...nonetheless, I am loving having a newborn and am trying to soak it in and savor the moments as they will (hopefully) be our last newborn experience until we have grandbabies. I love to lie on the couch with her head nuzzled under my chin, her little warm body sleeping on mine. What a gift!

The other kids are doing well, except for various illnesses we've been passing around (what is it with this time of year??). Jack is loving school and never seems to have a lack of enthusiasm for anything. He is learning about being a good big brother--learning to be respectful and honoring of his sisters, to put them and their needs first (he is SO self-centered right now!), to protect them, and to play with them...no easy feat. He often says things like "I love my girls!" And when I drop him off for school he says, "Good-bye, my girls! I'll see you tomorrow!" (I have no idea why he says tomorrow...) My favorite back-wards phrases he says these days are "Jesserfen" for his school, Jefferson, and then recently they had a Pajama Day at school and he jumped in the car and said, "Mommy, I had so much fun at my Japama Day!" I felt bad because I burst out laughing. I can't believe my sweet firstborn son will be in kindergarten next fall!

Ellie is still her spunky self, but is also growing into her big sister role fairly well. She loves loves LOVES Abby and wants to be near her and hold her anytime she can. She talks to her so sweetly, saying things like, "I know, I know. It's okay. Ellie's right here!" which just melts my heart. Ellie and Samantha play very well together these days; it is so wonderful to see them growing into sisterhood. Ellie continues to love music and singing and dancing...and is actually fairly musically inclined, it seems. She and I are seemingly doing better in our mother-daughter relationship compared to even six months ago; though the stubbornness and strong will are still there beneath the surface, I don't find that we are butting heads nearly as often, which I hope continues to get better (at least up until adolescence, right??). Ellie changes clothes about five times a day, usually based on whatever make-believe world she is in. She is still my snuggler, and often hugs me and says, "I love you, Mom" and just makes my day. She loves her siblings; when Jack gets in the car after school and shows her his stamp on his hand she remarks, "Oh, Wow, Jack-a-bee, that is so amazing! I love it!" When she gets up from her nap she usually says things to me like, "Mommy, I'm so happy to see you!" She is such an interesting blend of absolute sweetness and thoughtfulness (for a 3-year-old) that makes you smile and truly touches your heart, and then she can be one of the most willful children I've ever seen. I am so curious to see who she becomes!

Miss Samantha...is the monkiest of all my monkeys. I have to watch her nonstop, which can be a little exhausting at this point in life. She is at that age of constant testing...when the discipline begins hardcore, and in return come the challenges of authority. I feel like she needs the most correction and redirection and discipline these days, as I can feel her bucking me at every turn. It is especially hard when she is doing something she shouldn't and I'm stuck nursing and can't deal with it immediately. She is currently obsessed with the bathtub, and takes any opportunity she can to climb in--whether or not she is at our house! (If you ever lose her at your house, check your shower stall!) I'm not complaining...last month she wouldn't stop playing in the toilet and actually climbed IN one time. In general, though, she is a delight and brings us much joy. She has the sweetest laugh, one of those laughs that if I could only catch on video would surely be a YouTube sensation.

Eric and I are doing well...as most people know my mom has been declining in health and it has been hard for all of us. She is now in a nursing home here in town and so I've been able to see her a bit more often. I can't tell if she remembers who I am, or just that I am somehow important to her. I took Abigail with me to visit last week and she asked the nurse several times, "Who's baby is this?" even though I was sitting right next to her. I really miss my mom these days; some days it's been hard to function when my heart aches for her so deeply.

Eric is doing heavy career and degree research, so our evenings are pretty busy at this point. He works on job search stuff and I rock the baby and catch up on all the TV shows I don't really care about and probably shouldn't be watching. I plan to start up piano lessons again here in the next few weeks, too.

Our other exciting news is that we're building a house! It is a long story, but the short version is that we had originally planned to build a house with my parents so that I could be of more help to them, and specifically help my mom. But then when she declined so fast, we decided to go ahead with the plans anyway. So this past week, my childhood home was torn down (which I plan to write a whole other post about) and they just laid the foundation of our new home today! There will be an apartment for my dad, and then we'll have the rest of the house. I am so thrilled to be able to live on the same property where I grew up, to raise my kids there and walk them down the same streets that I walked down to the same schools where I attended as a child...what a blessing and a very special opportunity. It is bittersweet, missing my mom in all of it, but I look forward to this new chapter in our lives and to being around my dad on a regular basis!

Here are a few pics from the last month...for some reason I couldn't find very many of Ellie (the one set I found was of her singing to Abigail, which is super-sweet, except she's in her underwear and I don't feel comfortable putting those online!)...I'll have to snap a few of her soon. Enjoy!


The first picture and this one here is from an early shoot I did of Abby when she was just a few weeks old.


Mikaila (my niece) is so sweet with Abby and loves on her as much as she can!


Abby at two months old...not so sure about those fish...



I stayed home from church with Samantha and Abigail last week since they were sick, and at one point I found Samantha like this, decked out head to toe in sister Ellie's things. When the cat's away...



Samantha's hair is finally long enough for a pony tail!


Jack loves to hold his "new sister" Abigail as often as I'll let him.


Night-night!