I’m Back… Sort of

After giving myself a day to sit, hold my baby, ponder life and growth and so forth, I had to give myself a reality check.  So yesterday I attempted to take care of some of the “normal” responsibilities of a mother which I’ve ignored shamelessly for two weeks.

I put on a pair of jeans (non maternity) for the first time in about 4 months.

I got reacquainted with my laundry room.
IMG_7026 (Large)2
I actually did some laundry (which I forgot about and left sitting in the washer for about 6 hours)!  But hey, at least I did some, right?
IMG_7028 (Large)
I put a frozen lasagna in the oven that was made by a friend while I was in the hospital… and decided to bake some homemade rolls for dinner, as that sounded easier than actually loading 4 little ones up and going to the store.

When I got to the part where you roll out the dough and make the rolls, my newborn started screaming.
I panicked, and made one pan of the ugliest rolls I’ve ever made.  I put the other three in bread pans as fast as I could.
IMG_7024 (Large)
IMG_7025 (Large)
As soon as I had the dough off my fingers, she quit screaming.

I drove my daughter to soccer practice and intended to feed the baby while I waited.  Except it was so hot that I couldn’t wake her up!

I got home and the lasagna wasn’t done yet, and my husband had to leave for a meeting.  Oh well, I tried.  The lasagna was delicious, even if my poor husband wasn’t there to eat it.

Even if the rolls were ugly, they tasted good, especially with some of my homemade blackberry raspberry jam on them.
IMG_7038 (Large)
I got on the phone and worked on organizing a carpool for my 5th child who started kindergarten this morning.
IMG_7047 (Large)2
So right now I have 4 piles of clean, unfolded laundry in my bedroom, a totally dirty kitchen, a clingy 20 month old, lots of ideas about things I’d like to do for our family to help organize us for this newly begun school year, and plenty of good intentions.  We won’t look at the piles of dirty laundry in all the bedrooms, and we won’t talk about how long it seems to take to do things when you’ve got a newborn.  We’re working on it!  I do have one positive declaration to make about yesterday:  I didn’t cry once!  (We won’t talk about how we’re doing on that one this morning)

Almost not the baby

I took these pictures the day before my 8th baby was born.
My 7th is only 20 months old.

I think she knew what was coming, and needed a day to be the baby.
I held her a lot, we snuggled, and she fell asleep in my arms at naptime.

It was good for both of us.
While she was sleeping, I snapped a few pictures of her, dirty face and all.
IMG_6624Li (Large)
I love her beautiful, dark eyelashes and sweet pink lips.
She is really still quite small.
IMG_6621 (Large)
She still has pudgy little baby hands and sweet little feet.
Sure, the pitter patter of her run is much grown compared to the tiny footprint she came with.
IMG_6620 (Large)
Her vocabulary grows daily, and she yearns to be part of everything the big kids do, but she is only around 20 pounds of sweet, cuddly, baby girl.
IMG_6618 (Large)
Although she moves daily in the direction of a busy toddler, I had to pause and remember that if I wasn’t having another one, she would be such a baby to me.

The baby, and yet almost not the baby anymore.
The baby who would become a big sister the next day.
Moments like these are good for me as a mother.  They remind me how much love and tenderness all my children need, no matter how old they are, no matter how many younger brothers and sisters they have.
They remind me that love and tenderness are good for all of us, no matter how old we may get.
Thank goodness for babies!

Welcome Little One

We are the happy, grateful  parents of a new baby girl.
IMG_6667 (Large)
Although we’ve experienced this 7 times before, we’ve fallen in love again.
Fallen in love with another perfect, beautiful person who has joined our lives.
IMG_6716 (Large)
We’ve been reminded again of the miracle of new life, of all that can go wrong and all that can go right.
We feel humbled, grateful beyond words for a safe delivery and a precious baby girl.
IMG_6757Li (Large)
Did I mention that I’m hopelessly in love with her?

I love the way she keeps her hands right by her face.
IMG_6846Li (Large)
Soon she’ll relax, stretch out, and become accustomed to all the space she has to move around in.
Then poses like this will be a thing of the past.
IMG_6850 (Large)
These tiny hands are so precious.
And so are the little feet that rest so naturally on her diaper, all curled up in a little ball.
IMG_6856 (Large)
How grateful I am for this sweet baby girl who just became a part of my forever.
Welcome, welcome to our lives, our hearts, our family.
Welcome little one!

1 48 49 50 51 52