Photos: The Children In May

Quite honestly, I am too worn out to share any more than this.

Life is full.
Of love, laundry, big emotions, and summer weather.

DHH : three months til he's four
Elsa Kate: 25 months
Benny: just shy of 9 weeks old

Two Kids Are So Much Easier Than Three

(Of course)

We had BDH and EK's well child visits yesterday (they are healthy and vaccinated and are highest on their weight growth curves they have ever been).

Even though kids+shots=stress, it wasn't too bad to care for them. My mom had DHH at a park, so he wasn't adding to the immunization hoopla. He would have been asking to give the shots himself, I bet.

This morning he is visiting my parents and I took the younger kids to a park and the grocery store. With only one walker/talker, I was able to get a workout in and have the radio play on my phone. It felt like old times, like basically my life two years Ago.
The trip into the store for enchilada sauce was really painless, too.

I have been feeling uncomfortable about and not looking forward to the fall when DHH starts preschool.
However, these two events have given me a little ray of anticipation... Mornings next fall will be me and two littles. It will be pleasant to have them only to nurture and play.
It will feel easy! Familiar! Not too bad!
And then the afternoons with FOUR kids will be good, too (I will tell you about the addition later.)

Here are some iPhone photos of our times with just two.

Baby's First Bath: Siblings Get the Camera Time.

Maybe all of the third child's milestones are trumped or truncated by the older siblings?

Prime example of Big Kids moving in on the baby's first glorious moment territory... first tub bath.
We got the baby tub down and the older two couldn't wait to clamor into it!
They used the baby's sponge and really stole the spotlight as they washed each other's back and sang silly songs.

Here is the one lone photo of the baby... not exactly in the bath, but just after!
(Notice this is at our old house!)

And this photo was later on in the same day.

I Prefer Being a Baby-Mom (I Think!)

And it's impossible to be a baby-mom forever.
That's disappointing.
I think I really, really like the kind of motherhood that accompanies babies.
No, I didn't play with dolls as a child, and I didn't rush into motherhood knowing it was a dream I'd carried in my heart for years.
It seems like a fluke that I love baby-mothering the most.

Late March 2012, 2 weeks old

There is a rough transition in being a mom from infant to older child... from cute onesies and soft lullabies and feeding an infant to being pick about what clothes are worn to loud tantrums to serving a picky eater.
Its not possible to just freeze in at the good part of baby-mommying.

When you sign up for a pet, I assume that your pet-parenting varies little over the years.
You get what you had signed up for, I assume.

When you find out you are pregnant, you read baby books, research baby parenting styles/ decisions before the baby arrives, and plot out which sorts of baby-associated fears will plague your already restless nights (SIDS, vaccines and autism, improperly installed car seats, germs, cat-napping).

All that time and energy spent getting ready to baby-parent is kind of wasted, I think, because parenting is a fluid thing.
Babies quickly become kids and none is that stuff really matter anymore. You are forced to adjust.

Having little kids and a baby in the house, I can assure you it's cuter and sweeter and less tricky to be a baby-mom than a kid-mom.
I like all  of my kids.
I am happy they aren't frozen in the baby developmental phase  forever...
But I think baby-mothering is just a little more sweet and special.
So I will go out on a limb here and tell you that I prefer it over the other ages.