At Home With Our Family of Five

It is still taking me some time to get used to the thought that our family has now grown to five members. A short six years ago, I was on cloud nine because Neil had just proposed and I was planning a wedding. Now I am a mother to three of his babies.

I keep catching myself saying that the shift from two to three hasn't been all that hard. Then I realize that I had my parents here for the first week, a sister-in-law for another week, and I have had a TON of help from family and friends. Once all the help subsides and I actually step outside of my house with all three children to experience the real world again, I will re-assess how easy being a mother of three children really is. In the meantime, I am making a point to enjoy the downtime while I have it.

It has been fun watching Grace, Kade, and Neil interact with Kathryn. I always catch Grace snuggling with her on the floor or peeking on her in her crib. She sings to her all the time. Kade LOVES giving Kathryn kisses. At least twenty times a day he shouts, " I WANNA SEE THE BABY!!" which means he wants me to bend down so he can give her yet another kiss on the forehead. We have, however, had several talks about appropriate ways to play with the baby. Long jumping off the stool over her, playing steam-roller, and tipping her upside down in her car seat are all examples of INappropriate play with a newborn. Slowly but surely, we are all learning together. I am learning new ways to talk to Kade about how to treat Kathryn without batting him away all the time, he is learning what is and is not OK to do, and Kathryn is learning that this is her new world and hardly makes a fuss about it!

This photo makes Neil and I so proud of ourselves!  We are still making it work with just one car for our family. Luckily, Neil can work from home most days, and he has an awesome carpool buddy for the days he needs to go to the office so I am not stranded at home without transportation. I was really stressed out the first time I took Grace to school with all three kids. I really didn't think all the car seats would fit, but when they did, I was so relieved! Now the pressure to have to buy a bigger car is not so intense. We have some time to look around for the right one.

 Not only have we been staying inside to keep from exposing our new baby to all the germs floating around during the highest RSV season Utah has seen in 10 years, but we are literally stuck inside because of the weather. It has been an unusually snowy winter. We keep getting POUNDED with snow, making it impossible to bundle up and even go for a walk, because the sidewalks are covered. Thus, the kids have been getting very creative with ways to stay busy inside. Some afternoons, they like to pretend they are cooking in their own restaurant with all the contents of my cupboards.

 This weekend, I found them in the bathroom. Grace said they were giving teddy a massage.

On Sunday morning before Church, I was in the kitchen and overhead Grace say, "Kade, you be the Pwano (Piano) Guy, and I will be the Cello Guy. They were having quite the time jamming out, pretending to be the Piano Guys.

At the end of the day, we are getting along just great. Kathryn is a sweet girl. I could just sit and watch her sleep for hours, because she is so darling! She sleeps through all the ruckus we make and doesn't seem to mind getting mauled by all the snuggles and kisses.