December 8

That stinker baby of mine woke up at 5 am again today.

It's like he can tell time. 

Chris took him from 5:45 until he left for work at 7, and I put Eli down for his morning nap at 7:30. It's ridiculous. When I left his room, I heard Lily talking in her room. I had my phone with me, so I was able to capture what I see every morning and almost every naptime when she wakes up:

Lily, sitting on the edge of her bed, reading books. When she wakes up, she never gets out of bed. She doesn't turn on the light. She sits there in the dark, pulling books from her bookshelf, reading them to herself. Eventually, she will get bored and start calling for me. I keep telling her that she can get out of bed and come find me; we even practiced it for a while and made it a game. But this is what she prefers. Funny girl.

We got Caleb on the bus, and Eli slept. I delayed taking Daisy to preschool because Eli was still sleeping, but finally at 9:20 I went in and woke him up. Once Daisy was at school, the little ones and I had the morning at our disposal. I didn't really want to go anywhere, so we went home. When we saw my mom yesterday, she gave me a flat sheet she found at a thrift store. It was half striped and half polka dotted, and she thought it was so much fun that she bought it. As soon as I saw it, I had a plan. 

Today, I made that plan happen.

I know. Best fort ever, right? I took the Christmas lights out of the box forts of the other day - the boxes were in the way and annoying me - and taped them to the underside of a folding card table. I arranged the sheet, pinned it, cut it, and sewed a few seams. Voila! An absolutely awesome, removable, reusable fort!

These were the only pictures I took of it, but the kids were so pumped!

I finished right before it was time to go get Daisy. Once everyone was fed and down for naps, I actually crawled into bed, too. I haven't napped in months, but Eli has been waking up a lot at night lately, and I am exhausted. He woke up from his nap an hour later, and we had a lovely time in the late afternoon sunshine in his room.

As I changed his diaper, I marveled at how chubby and solid he's getting. He has come so far; we have come so far. Remember when I was legitimately concerned that I may never be able to nurse him normally? Remember when he was so little and skinny and delicate? 

Look at him now.

He is perfect.

We are blessed.

I am thankful.

So, so thankful.

And remember how I wrote the other day that I couldn't really tell much about his personality? Today he showed me that he actually has quite a personality, thank you very much. He also showed me why he hasn't been sleeping well lately: cognitive and physical advances.

Today, Eli showed me that he is definitely trying to sign "milk".

He also tried to say "milk".

He started trying to wave.

Instead of trying to use the sign I'm teaching him for "more", he started saying, "Mo!"

He pulled up to standing again and again and again, and even did Downward Dog a few times!

I can't be too annoyed at my lost sleep when this little boy is learning and growing so much. It's funny, though, that it all seems to happen at once!

Lens distortion = Eli looks like a baby seal pup, don't you think?

We were having so much fun that I even turned on my camera remote and took a few pictures with me in them. I am rumpled, frizzy, and may not have brushed my teeth. My shirt is stretched out from nursing so many babies, and I am wearing the one pair of jeans that fit my battered postpartum body. 

But I am happy and thankful, and I want to remember our sunny afternoon together.

And then everyone else woke up and it was time to get Caleb and Chris stayed late at work for a Christmas party so I had to handle after school and dinner and  bathtime by myself...

As I made dinner, I heard the kids running and scurrying around back in the bedrooms, but I didn't know what they were up to. Once dinner was ready, I got a chance to see.

They made a "shoe store".

They gathered every pair of shoes they could find and arranged them by size, then laid out a row of socks, too. I'm confident that if I hadn't interrupted them, they would have laid out every single pair of socks, too.

I don't know who the mastermind was behind this plan, but I certainly appreciate the orderliness and attention to detail! Even more, I appreciate that when I told them to put it all away, they did. Quickly, cheerfully, and thoroughly. I was most impressed.

Caleb begged to call Grandma and invite her over to help with bedtime. She didn't answer her phone, so he left the sweetest voice mail message for her. She couldn't say no, and she arrived after everyone was bathed and in jammies. I could have handled bedtime without her help, but it really was nice to have her there! 

December 7

Woo hoo! I'm caught up with the blog, and almost caught up with editing my photo sessions. I have one left to edit, and none on my calendar for the rest of the year, so hopefully I'll be back to posting decent pictures here again soon.

Today was Do-Nothing Monday, but the girls didn't think that sounded too exciting. Even before we had Caleb on the school bus, they were begging to go to the zoo or the Botanical Garden. Me? I just wanted to putter around the house in my sweat pants and fold laundry. We compromised on a visit to Grandma's house.

Mom has the week off work, so she was really excited to spend the morning with some of her grandbabies. We made cookies and the kids played while I helped her purge some household items. All in all, a morning well spent.

The girls love making cookies!

Mom was impressed at how well they hold the mixer. I was impressed by Daisy's outfit. Floral shirt, t-shirt, poofy floral skirt, and jeans. Girl can layer.

Also, Lily's ponytail is cracking me up. Some days I don't choose to fight the hair battle; as long as it is brushed, I don't force them to pull it out of their faces. It bothered Mom, though, so I used one of my hair ties to put it up. 

This was right about when Lily looked at my mom's festive Christmas sweatshirt and said, "Like you shirt, Grandma!"

Mom was tickled beyond belief,  because she wore the shirt just for the girls. I love that Lily is the sort of child who notices things like that, who is quick with a compliment, who always thinks to say thank you and show appreciation. She is such a sweet little spirit - the perfect compliment to Daisy's spice.

I let the girls eat cookies for lunch.

Then we headed home for late naps. After dinner, I was finally able to fold all that laundry. As I sat on the floor in Eli's room, folding laundry, Lily put one of Caleb's fedoras on me and sidled up behind me. You know I snapped a selfie.

Aren't we funny?

And then Eli came crawling in, plowed through all of my piles of freshly folded laundry, and climbed into my lap. I love that kid. I'm pretty sure today he actually tried to sign "milk" to me while he was nursing. He may have also tried to wave for the first time. We'll see if he can do it again tomorrow before I call it official.

And finally, it was bedtime. 

This makes my heart sing.

Happy, happy, happy.

December 6

When Lily got up this morning, the first thing she asked was, "You have fun at ball? You Daddy dance at ball?"

She's only two, but Cinderella has given her an idea of what a ball is, and she was captivated. I showed her the pictures and all of the goodies we got, and she was so happy. I love that little girl.

Eli was up at 5:30, and ready for his morning nap by 8:00. I know, it's bizarre, but we're going with it for now. Unfortunately, that meant that once again, church wasn't an option for him and one of us needed to stay home. Chris took the older three to church, and while they were gone and Eli slept, I was wickedly productive with the photo editing. God smiled down on me, and my sweet baby napped for three hours straight. I was thankful!

When he woke up, we spent a good amount of time nursing and snuggling in bed. It is definitely one of our favorite pastimes together.

Hi, cutie pie!

We also had some quality playtime. Eli is a big fan of both the wooden abacus (Caleb has learned to call it a "math rack" with "number beads" at school) and the singing activity table.

He's an even bigger fan of my camera, though. This is him crawling to get it.

Later, Chris showed Eli some of our swag from the ball last night.  

Eli was particularly fond of this hat. I wonder if it is foreshadowing that he will attend Missouri State University? Last night someone referred to it as "the Harvard of the Midwest", but I'm pretty sure I don't believe that.

Regardless, he's cute in the hat.

Caleb had rehearsal for our church kids' Christmas program after dinner, so Chris took him to that while I handled bedtime.

Want to see what bedtime looks like around here? Here are some videos:

 Eli is getting really fast with his army crawl. Though he can get up on his hands and knees, he hasn't figured out that he can move around that way. Also, he's wearing his new Christmas jammies. Every year we give the kids new slippers and jammies on St. Nicholas Day. This year I found an awesome sale, and the kids all have coordinating or matching jammies.

The girls prepare for bedtime by running up and down the hallway in their new jammies. Whatever, man. I just want to get them to bed.

December 5

I'm playing blog catch-up today; I spent most of the weekend rushing to finish editing pictures for some families, and ended up neglecting pictures of my own. I suppose that's how it goes. But tonight? I missed blogging tonight because Chris and I went to a ball.  What fun we had!

I spent the morning running around like a crazy person - a photo session at 8:30, then to Target for some necessities, then to find shoes for the ball (a hazard of being a stay-at-home mom for 6+ years is the complete lack of fancy shoes), then home to edit photos that I promised to have done today. 

Chris is such a supportive husband, and it didn't even phase him to be solely responsible for the kids most of the day. I am lucky to have him!

He took these awesome pictures of Eli, playing in Lily's Halloween costume from last year. You know, the one I worked so hard to make and then she refused to wear? That one. At least Eli likes it now.

I don't care if Lily did refuse to wear it - it is a masterpiece.

Also, Eli is adorable.

In the course of my morning's errands, I found these awesome shoes on super-duper clearance for $5.97. And I had a coupon. You have no idea how thrilled I was. My dress was on clearance for $13.99, the shoes ended up costing $4.48, and I got a whole arm party of bracelets for $9. All told, I spent less than $30 for my ensemble, and I felt fabulous. It was an all-around win!

(Caleb said the shoes look like they're made of aluminum foil, and I have to say agree. Still, I love them. And oh, you should have seen how the children reacted when I brought them home! The three that can walk all had to take turns wearing them, and the older two each insisted that the shoes fit them perfectly. It was so much fun. Even if I only wear them once, they are worth every penny.)

I got home in time to nurse Eli and put him down for his afternoon nap. 

(I promise I was wearing a white shirt - this photo is in no way indecent.)

Look at those puffy lips!

My mom and Jenny came over to watch the kids while Chris and I went out, but I waited much too long to begin getting ready so everything was hectic. Plus, I have no idea how to do anything with my hair. I haven't bought makeup or hair products or anything in at least 7 years, so I was basically waiting for my fairy godmother to come along and bippity-boppity-boo me into Cinderella, and it didn't happen. 

Still, we made time to take pictures before we left.

 Not bad, I say!

The ball was a charity event for Missouri State University, and the tickets were paid for by Chris' employer. We sat at a table with his boss, a few co-workers, and their wives, and enjoyed cocktails and dinner and dancing; it was like prom all over again!

(Have I ever blogged the story and the pictures of the time Chris was my date to my senior prom? We were just friends at the time and I was adamant that he was totally not my type. We didn't even dance. Three years and a few months later, we were married. Ha!)

(What? You want a picture? OK.

This was nearly 17 years ago. He wore pink Keds with his tux. I made his boutonniere, and got my dress while on a mission trip to Mexico during spring break.)

(Does the classic photo make up for the excessive parentheses?)

Fun, fun, fun!

When we left, everyone in the house was crying.

Correction: all of the children were crying. The grown-ups kept it together.

We rushed out in a swirl of chaos, but Mom and Jenny handled everything and Chris and I had a smashing time. After dancing until I couldn't stand anymore (not used to those heels, remember?), we returned home to sleeping babies and a clean kitchen. 

How lovely.

December 4

Eli was a stinker about his nap this morning, but when he finally went down, it was beautiful.

I was about to type that I like him best when he's sleeping, but that's totally not true. 

I still feel like I don't really know Eli's personality; he's different from the other three in that way, and it alternately makes me worried or makes me feel like a bad mom. But lately it seems that he grows more and more fun each day. 

He may be adorable when he's asleep, with those rosy cheeks and squishy lips, but he's even sweeter when he's awake.

He's a happy, content, funny little boy.

He likes the cat, and got to actually pet her yesterday.

Now he's trying really hard to say the word "cat".

He loves to be wherever his siblings are.

He likes balls and cars and birds.

He just started shaking his head at me - "No no, mama." 

He may not be saying it yet, but I can tell he's thinking it. 

And then there's this little stinker. She was really proud of her getup.Can you tell that those blocks at the bottom are soft, and she has her feet through the holes in them so that they are acting like shoes? And she's wearing the third block on her wrist, like a bracelet. 

With a Santa hat that she calls her "soft hat" - no similar hats will do; it has to be this hat.

These kids keep me on my toes. It's a good thing they're so funny and cute, though.

December 3

I still can't believe it's December, but it is. We had MOPS this morning, and after my blowup tantrum morning on Tuesday, things went much more smoothly today. Caleb and Daisy are now getting dressed as soon as they wake up, and I'm trying to make sure we all do our first things first, so that if I have to spend half an hour putting Eli down for his morning nap, all is not lost. So this morning was hectic, but it worked. Eli napped from 7:30-9:00, then we got Daisy to preschool a little bit late, and we arrived at MOPS just about five minutes late. Not too shabby! Of course, by the time we left MOPS, Eli was overdue for a nap and done.

My afternoon involved feeding everyone lunch, putting everyone down for naps, attempting to edit pictures but procrastinating and doing everything else that needs to be done first, and then Eli woke up. So it goes.

He took a great  nap, but was still crabby and fussy when he woke up, so we did the one thing that always makes him happy: we snuggled and nursed in my bed.

Look at him climbing up over me! He is so proud of himself.

What a sweet little boy!

Big boy?

It was time to go get Caleb from the bus, so we peeked in at Daisy to see if she was awake.

I found this: 

Where is Daisy?

She was hiding under that tent of sheets, sound asleep. Funny girl.

And then it was dinner and laundry and Caleb had Tiger Scouts so I put the younger three to bed by myself. Eli sleeping in the crib in the evenings is still a new thing, so I was apprehensive that he might not allow me to nurse him and put him down. It works for Chris, but would it work for me?

Thankfully, it did. He wasn't sound asleep when I left, but he was able to fuss for a few minutes and settle himself down. 

THAT IS HUGE.

It's a new thing for him, and I'm so thankful. We are making progress with the sleep stuff! Praise God.

December 2

It was a late-start day for Caleb today, and I really wanted to do something fun and special with him. Unfortunately, it was cold out, and all of the fun indoor activities didn't open until 10:00, which was too late. So instead, I let Caleb and Daisy watch an hour and a half of TV.

Mom of the Year.

After we got Caleb on the bus, the girls begged me to take them to the Butterfly House. Eli crawled around while I got ready to go, but he is inevitably drawn to the bathroom, where he wants to explore around our (not necessarily clean) toilet. I tried putting him on my bed, hoping our bed rails would contain him.

Nope. Not anymore. Now that Eli can pull up, even the bed rails aren't safe. Luckily, he is now sleeping in his crib in the evening, so the only time he's in bed is when I'm sleeping there with him. 

I left my phone in the van, so I didn't take any pictures in the Butterfly House. I was so disappointed about that, because we ran into my friend Liz (Hi, Liz!) and one of her sons. Lily really enjoyed playing with Matthew. In fact, Lily seems to enjoy playing with most younger children these days. Check out this moment I captured later in the afternoon:

Eli, playing with the play food in the kitchen.

Oh, wait. No, it's Lily, serving the play food to Eli. She is "slicing" a cookie. Look at that expression of pure delight on Eli's little face!

Oh, now she's "feeding" the imaginary cookie to Eli, and he wants it so badly!

And the face Lily is making? It's a fishy kissy face, and it's killing me!

Apparently Eli thinks it's funny, too.

She is just too much!

We ended our evening with a quick trip to the library, followed by hot cocoa in the van while we drove around and looked at Christmas lights. It was perhaps a bit early in the season for that, and we didn't see many, but the kids were so, so happy. It was one of those moments in parenting where I felt like everything was right, and I was thankful. 

I am thankful.

December 1

That's right. 

December.

How on earth did that happen?

We had an awful morning here. I wasted 40 minutes trying to get Eli down for his 7am nap, and when I gave up and came out, I found Caleb still in his jammies, playing with Legos. Not ready for school. Nothing. I lost it and spent the next hour slamming things and shouting. I'm sure it was exacerbated by the fact that I wasn't able to have my coffee, pump, or eat breakfast, but it was bad.  It makes me scared that the postpartum depression is coming back, but I'm praying it was just a bad morning.

I had to drive Caleb to school, then take Daisy to preschool, and then the little ones (including Mr. No-Nap Eli) and I went to Amber's house for a playdate. It was such an awful morning that I seriously considered cancelling with her, but I'm so glad we went. I was able to mostly ignore my children and chat and drink coffee with someone who is so very well acquainted with all of my shortcomings, and still loves me dearly. Good friends are a balm for the ragged soul.

We left just in time to pick Daisy up from preschool, then home for lunch and naps. Eli only napped for two hours, when he really should have slept for at least three, so he was high maintenance when he woke up.

It doesn't help that he keeps bonking his head on things. Look at that red mark on his forehead!

It's obnoxious funny how babies can be so happy one moment, and three seconds later they are so upset. Eli is totally there right now.

Soon it was time to get Caleb off the bus, so I wrapped Mr. Grouchy Pants up on my back, covered him with my big cardigan, and away we went.

We are such a funny sight that I had to take a few pictures. 

I like the sunshine in this one.

Caleb was in a foul mood when he got off the bus, I was still crabby, and Chris got stuck at work late. It was awful. Mr. Grouchy baby fussed and cried unless he was on my back, and then he only fussed 25% of the time. The girls colored together on the couch while I made dinner.

Note: this is a sign of how desperate I was. I allowed Lily to use the smelly markers (which claim to be washable but totally aren't) unsupervised, on the couch. I just needed her to leave me alone, so I let it happen. Also, Daisy is really good at tattling supervising.

Caleb finally got to put up his window clings, which made him happy for a brief moment.

I held dinner off as long as I could, and Chris got home right as dinner was ready and right as Eli decided he couldn't hold it together any longer. I took Eli straight to my room, where I fed him and we shared a snuggle and a snooze.

Now the day is over, and I'm praying tomorrow is better. It's a late start day for Caleb, so we can take the morning nice and slow. 

Also, I found these pictures on my phone that I meant to share yesterday.

Eli woke up from his first nap and the girls begged to join him in his crib. As you can tell from Eli's tuxedo sleep sack, it was a formal affair.

He loves playing in his crib with his sisters!

(Except when they get too excited and everyone gets bonked.)

And here's happy Daisy in her box fort. Doesn't she look like a cat who just ate a canary? That girl is something else.