Adelyn 4 1/2 months

I really thought I'd be able to document each child growing up in the same way. What I mean by that is I chose to ignore or disagree with people who said, "By the third child, you'll be lucky to get pictures of them at all!" While I still don't agree, I certainly understand better what they mean now. It's just the nature of having more than one child. With each baby, there's more to do than spend an entire day watching them, holding them, attending to their every need. I've tried my hardest to continue taking pictures of all the girls but I'm a little behind.

Adelyn turned 4 months on April 28. She's getting her own little personality and it makes us adore her more everyday. She's rolling over, eating cereal (which she's not really a fan of), sweet potatoes, and her favorite so far is carrots. She's taking naps in her crib better than before but still cries herself to sleep most of the time (like right NOW!) Sarabeth & Anabelle are still very attentive and loving, and are even starting to be protective. For example we went to dinner the other night with our next door neighbors and left all 5 kids at their house with a sitter. She texted us not long after we left with a funny little story- Apparently their boys were "petting" Adelyn (something Sarabeth still frequently asks to do herself.) When Sarabeth saw them, she said, "She's a baby, NOT a dog!" I cracked up laughing because that's the very thing I tell her when she asks to pet the baby. At least I know she's listening to me, right?!

Starting to enjoy tummy time more now that her neck is stronger

Her darling bloomers (thanks Sara & Jared!)

First taste of cereal

Big brown eyes!

Thanks to drool/spit-up, her poor neck & collar are always wet.

Mother's Day and the finger

Nothing says Happy Mother's Day like having your 4 year old flip you the bird during her preschool performance. There's more to the story than that...

The girls' school has an annual "Muffins with Moms" breakfast the Thursday before Mother's Day. Some classes sit & have muffins together, some sing songs, and they all give darling gifts. This year I got a poem, cookbook (with each child's favorite recipe their mom makes in their own words- hilarious!) and a plaster handprint. Love it! I also got the finger. It happened like this. I started the morning in Anabelle's class where I got to sit in her seat, eat muffins, and read her poem. From there I went to Sarabeth's class where they had some songs to sing for all the moms. They did the Pledge of Allegiance, sang their days of the week song & months of the year songs, along with some others. By "they" I mean Sarabeth's classmates. She froze just like last year. She gets nervous around people she doesn't know and especially in situations where there's attention on her. About halfway through their songs she starts walking over to me and proceeds to stick up her middle finger plain as day. I, mortified, rushed her over to me asking what she was doing. She promptly showed me her hangnail and started to cry because she needed a bandaid. I told her (loudly enough for the other parents to hear, not too loud to interrupt the performance still going on), "We'll get you a bandaid as soon as you're done singing." So somewhere out there, parents have videos of their children singing lovely songs to them for Mother's Day and my child showing me her hangnail. Bless her heart.

On another note, I've had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend so far. I've been blessed with such a wonderful husband and precious 3 daughters. It helps that I have such great examples of what a mother should be in my mom and mother-in-law. My heart is so full. I never thought life could be this great, and it just keeps getting better.

Happy Mother's Day!