Better Late Than Never

I was shocked that I could still log into this thing, it's been so long. In my defense, I've been a little busy. Babies are a ridiculous amount of work. My house contains a kindergartner, a preschooler, a 2-yr-old, and a new baby, so we aren't bored. I kind of forgot what 'spare time' is, and I suppose the few minutes of it that I've had here and there the past several months have been spent either sleeping, searching for comfort food in the pantry, or crying in the shower. J/k, it's not THAT bad. Usually.

Michael is 3 1/2 months old. Those first couple months have always been rough for me at best...I don't do changes well. At all. And when you bring that little bundle home from the hospital, you've got the mother of all changes on your hands, my friends, no matter how many times you've done that before. I really can't say that we've ever had a baby with colic (praise Jesus), but little Michael went through a rough patch. As I tearfully explained his symptoms to our pediatrician at his 2 month check-up, she smiled and nodded and told me to Google "Period of PURPLE crying". I was so unbelievably happy that whatever he was doing had a name. It meant that I wasn't the only one whose baby seemed to hate being alive sometimes. He was absolutely inconsolable every evening from about 6pm until midnight, and it was exhausting. Thankfully, at about 10 weeks old, some little switch flipped in his brain and he suddenly became a fat, happy, smiley, cuddly little man that goes to bed at 6:30 or 7 every night and only wakes up once in the 12 hours following that. Which means, that suddenly I'm sitting here after 7:30pm, able to do thinks that normal, functioning adults do, like read or write, or shower, or talk to my husband, or watch tv. And ALL MY KIDS ARE IN BED SLEEPING AT THE SAME TIME. There still isn't a night that goes by that I don't feel amazed by this.

Life with 4 kids age 5 and under is incredible and exhausting. My 2-yr-old, especially, has been a full-time job lately. He eats without ceasing. He's very loud, and is responsible for 99% of the messes at our house. He's injured himself, pretty seriously, twice in the last 4 days. He's had a couple full-blown tantrums in a store recently, which is completely new for me. He's moved on from "Ouch" and "Help", and his newest favorite words are "WHY?!??" and "NO!!!". (remember the good old days when I wanted him to start talking?) I feel like I'm in completely uncharted territory with this one. But tonight at bedtime, I was sitting in his room with him, singing his bedtime songs, and he reached up and put his chubby little boy hands on my cheeks, put his face right up against mine, and said, "Mommy, wuv!" I'm kind of suspicious that he's a player, but it worked. He's got me right where he wants me. I've realized that mommies are like the world's biggest pushovers. Your baby babbles something adorable, or gives you a toothless grin, or randomly hugs your neck, or makes you a horribly misspelled love note, and you instantly forgive all manner of tantrums, nasty diapers, interrupted sleep, and trashed areas in your house. Funny how that works.

Maybe I can start posting more often than once a year. We'll see... :)