Joy times four

Every time I have another baby, it is a little different.  Not just the baby, the delivery, the pregnancy.  But the whole surroundings.  Because every time I have a baby, there is another little one at home to welcome her.

Andrew came home to two doting parents whose whole universe had not only centered on him throughout the pregnancy (name lists were made before discovering the gender, music was played for his sole enjoyment and enrichment in the womb...), but continued to focus on him after his birth.  Everything was new and exciting.  Everything he did we oohed and aahed and took a picture.

Natalie came home to two doting parents who had considered names before the hospital and who were excited to welcome the first girl, and to an older brother who wasn't too sure about sharing mom's lap and took his spot on that lap everytime I started to feed Natalie.  But he soon was loving her too.  He still took naps in the afternoon, and so there was still some one-on-one time with Natalie and even some alone time for me on occasion.  We were out and about soon after the delivery...why not?  With just one little one to chase and the baby very content in her car seat/stroller we could go and do anything with occasional breaks for feeding. And we took plenty of pictures, but maybe not of everything.

James came home to two doting parents.  But mom admits she didn't really have time to think much about him before he got here.  Of course there were moments when I would think of his arrival and feel so grateful and excited to meet him.  But most of mom's time was spent entertaining, chasing, cleaning up after two little children.  He got as much attention as his parents could give him amidst the busyness.  And some one-on-one attention during night feedings.  But he got non-stop attention from his older brother and sister who were now old enough to appreciate and immediately adore their new baby brother.  Kisses, loves, laughs, dress-ups.  We tried to get out right away with some semi-disasterous results.  And there were not as many pictures. 

And now Amelia.  Name, what name?  Baby, what baby?  Things were pretty crazy around here before she arrived.  And things are still pretty crazy after her arrival.  Granted, I got plenty of just me and baby time in the hospital.  And even this week with John home, I have found that I have some precious moments with her.  But that will change next week.  She has come home to a full house.  A home full of laughing, playing, make-believe, and yes, crying, fighting and some screaming (mostly done by the kids, not the mom...mostly).

But amazingly, I feel like the excitement and joy surrounding each child just gets greater each time.  Not that we are more excited over one child vs. another.  But the amount of total joy increases each time.  

With the first child, all the joy surrounding the birth is centered on only that child.  With each additional child, I feel that the joy is magnified.  Because now it's not just about the one child, but about each child and his interaction with the new baby.  

I was thrilled to hold Amelia for the first time, love looking into her beautiful eyes with my face next to hers, love rubbing my cheek on her soft head, feeling her body breathe as she lays curled up on my chest.  Every noise she makes, every face she makes I am admiring and loving.  

But I can't explain the joy I felt when these kids came to see the baby for the first time. 

Look at their faces.

And look at all those "aminals."  Natalie has some pretty lipstick on.

They were so excited. 

And just loving her.

Andrew was so excited he could hardly stand it.  He held Amelia, kissed her head with a little kiss and whispered, "I love you" into her little ear.  I get teary just thinking about it.

Natalie must have exclaimed "She's SOOO cute" 100 times.  At least.  She held her and held her and held her.  She rubbed her head with her little hand.  She covered her with blankets and made sure she had her bunny that had been given to her.  And everything Amelia did, Natalie made sure we all knew about it as she let out an exclamation of delight and announced, "She just did _____!"

James showed off his language skills and exclaimed "baby" over and over as he destroyed the room.  But he did get in a few "soft" pats on her head.  As they were all gathered around John holding her in a very tender moment, James leaned in, smiled, said "baby" and spit on her head.  Since we have been home, he has been constantly gifting Amelia with different stuffed animals and kisses "mmm--aaa" to her head.

And this warm feeling of joy continues to fill my heart every time one of the kids wants to hold Amelia, or wants to show her to her friends, or gets excited over something she is doing, or just stops by to give her a little kiss to her head or whisper something in her ear.

Joy now times four.

I feel so blessed.

Even when the nurse came in to see why there were loud banging noises coming from my room during each family visit.  Weren't those rolling stools put in the rooms for children to push each other around on?

She's here!

We welcomed Amelia Suzanne Garner to the world at 1:47am, Friday June 26th. 

She weighed 7lbs 9oz, 

was 21 inches long,

and has a very small head.

More info later, but here are some more pictures of the many faces of our sweet new addition.  Please ignore the 5-year-old male car seat cover in the background.

"Let's Hear it for the Boys!": Photo Challenge

Something new...this week at I ♥ Faces the theme is Boys.  
I loved this picture the minute I took it.  We were running through the sprinklers and I caught Andrew after a run through.  I love the sweet smile combined with the drops of water on his face.  Sums up this boy...sweet, crazy and fun.  

Table talk

At dinner the other night Natalie said she felt sick.  Because she regularly tells us that something hurts or she doesn't feel well, I wasn't worried.  But I did remind everyone what to do if you feel like you have to throw up.  

If you have to throw up, where do you go?  Bathroom...toilet, etc.

There was a pause as everyone continued to eat and then Andrew added in all seriousness, "And if you have a frog in your throat, you have to go to the lake."

Thank you!

Only a few weeks until a new baby.  And amidst the sleepless nights, shortness of breath, can't bend over, pain shooting up the back of my leg, heartburn, probably the most difficult thing over the past few weeks has been the roller coaster of emotions.  I may have just blocked that out, but I don't really remember feeling quite this way with the other ones.  I'm sure I just blocked it out.  But suddenly life has seemed so hard, lonely and so not fair.  Basically I have been feeling very sorry for myself in many areas.  Yuck.

Luckily, I have been regaining some real perspective and as I am, I am feeling so grateful for so many people who have been such a huge help and support lately.  So here is a shout out to my sisters-in-law and mother-in-law who insisted on coming over and moving a bed, a crib, and cleaning anything they could get their hands on, who came over and mopped floors, etc. to help me feel like I was not so overwhelmed, to my mom who has listened to me crying to her on the phone without judgment and just chalked it up to lack of sleep and being pregnant (thank you!!), for a friend who brought dinner over out of the blue, for a sister-in-law who calls when she has a minute to see what she can do to help, for friends who have invited my kids over to play, for my mother-in-law who has offered to watch my kids during my now weekly doctor visits, for a friend who has called just to say hi, and for a friend who came over and shared a wonderful afternoon swimming, talking and just hanging out.  It was so fun.  And just what I needed.  And a thank you to anyone I have missed.

I definitely prefer the gratitude to the self pity.  It feels SO much better.

And now too, I am getting so excited to welcome this new little baby.  To see what she looks like, get to know her unique little personality.  I am always amazed at how much I can love each child without loving any of the others any less.  

WalMart highlight

The three who make WalMart an interesting experience every time

We went to WalMart today.  

The highlight of the trip (it really is so hard to pick ONE) was when we had left the store and I was herding us and the full cart across the street to our car.

And our super-helpful cashier came running out after us.  He was yelling and holding up a baby stroller that was holding Natalie's dog Frenchy.  The stroller that Natalie takes everywhere these days.  Even to WalMart.

"Thank you!" I said amidst the cashier's heavy breathing and the spectators' chuckles.

I unloaded the kids and stuff into the car, got in and just started to laugh.

I realized later that the stroller contained unpaid merchandise in the lower pocket.  We may have stumbled on to the perfect shoplifting scheme.  Too bad that's not really our style.  No, instead it's back to WalMart.

I just love James' face here.  He just doesn't miss anything that those older ones do.  

You lost what?

We had to run to the pool store yesterday.  I loaded everyone in the car, sat down in my seat and Andrew says from the back, "Mom, I lost my tooth!"

What?

Tooth?  

He's five!  Can kids lose their teeth at five?  I thought it was more like seven.  And was his tooth even loose?  How could I not know that?

I wasn't sure what to expect when I got out of the car, opened the back door and climbed in by him.  What I found was a hole where his tooth used to be on the bottom. 

And sure enough...when he said he "lost" his tooth, he really meant he pulled it out, threw it and had no idea where it was.   

It took me a while to figure out what happened really.  I don't think he even knew.  And he suddenly started crying for no reason for about 3 seconds.  I  think he was as confused as I was and I think he was worried he had somehow done something he wasn't supposed to and was reluctant to say what had happened. So I couldn't really get an accurate story from him.  Natalie finally stepped in and showed me with her hand how he reached in his mouth, pulled out the tooth, and threw it.

Did you bump it?  No.  I saw no bleeding, he said it didn't hurt.

This was nothing like what I pictured losing the first tooth would be like!  Finally, after some confused moments, I started getting excited and telling him how great...his first tooth, the tooth fairy, etc.

Last night when he was going to bed, I said, "Congratulations, Andrew!  Your first tooth!  You are so big!"  And he said, "Why did you say Congratulations, mom?"

There is still no sign of the tooth, so we decided we would try to find it today again.  If we don't have any luck, we'll be writing a note to the tooth fairy tonight.  And he might be surprised to find money under his pillow because he was telling us yesterday that the tooth fairy will bring him a new tooth.  Hope he's not disappointed.  

I still can't believe my five-year-old lost his first tooth.  He did get all his teeth really early, so maybe he is going to lose them early also.  It just seems like a milestone I'm not quite ready for.  He is growing up too fast!

But I was only gone for 10 minutes...

I walked outside this morning after being upstairs for about 10-15 minutes and found this.

This is such a Natalie expression.

And if you were wondering, Natalie does have a diaper on.  She wears one at night.  We just moved her from a crib to a bed and haven't taken the nighttime training step.  One of these days.

Natalie has been catching ants (the most recent one named Princess Aurora) lately (and an unfortunate spider "he's my best friend mom" that didn't last long in the sugar/water concoction in the jar) and decided she needed some ant food.  

Obviously I had forgotten to lock the pantry when I went upstairs.  I hope the ants enjoyed the powdered sugar, nilla wafers, tortilla chips and salt.  James sure did.

Warning...James does need his nose wiped really badly.  Picture may be too graphic for some. 

This is James' "cheese" face

Free First Friday

A new children's museum opened up in Phoenix last year.  We have never been, so imagine my excitement when I discovered that every first Friday night of the month you can get in free...that's right...FREE...from 6-9pm.  

So on Friday we picked John up from work and parked our car at the 38th street light rail station.  Andrew has been dying to ride the "train" and it seemed a fun way to get downtown.  

Andrew watching the light rail approaching

I love this look on Natalie's face

And it was.  

But then we rounded the corner and saw the line to get into the museum.  1 1/2 to 2 hour wait we were told.  We just kept on walking and took the kids over to the fountains at the Arizona Center.  They loved it.

We did let James out for just a little bit.  But he sure enjoyed the stroller ride ;-)

And as they got their feet and hands wet, climbed walls, and marveled at the water, I was reminded that some of the best activities don't require money or some crazy fun plan.  We had the best time.  The kids played in the water, ran around, the weather was perfect, and best of all, we were together.  

John's face cracks me up in this picture.  Especially because when I called him with this idea he said, "That sounds like a lot of work."  And I said, "Well, anything we do with three little kids is a lot of work.  It might as well be this."  And surprising to both of us, it really wasn't very hard at all.  

And I, who sometimes struggle with "changes of plan", had no problem with this one.  Because the plan really was just to get out and do something together.  And we did.

Andrew told us as we were riding the light rail back to the parking lot, "I want to come back and ride this train next Saturday and I want to ride it forever and ever."   I honestly think riding the train was about as good as it gets from his 5-year-old perspective.

Even if it was a little loud...