Not really, but scrolling through the pictures you would think so! I am trying to be much more diligent in taking baby pictures - she has grown so fast! We bought this car seat when I was pregnant with Lily. Adam took me to a fancy baby store in Salt Lake and insisted on getting a super nice lightweight one. It sure does show the wear, but it really is small and easy to carry - especially awesome when I need to carry Isaac with my other hand. I almost forgot to take a picture of her in it, since I have one of all of the other kids. It will be trashed when she's done with it.
This picture makes me happy. I love my kiddos - love this time of life - love that I get to stay home with them - love each of their cute and awesome personalities - love that I don't freak out about little things (like being late for meetings or school) since most of the time I can recognize they are little things - love love love love. It is pretty easy to remember that it seems just yesterday that Lily was three months old, so I know I need to enjoy these days that go by so fast!
Dad came up at the beginning of February and took us skiing (Adam stayed with Isaac and Ada). We put Lily and Jackson in ski lessons so we could have some time on the slopes; such a good idea! It was SO NEAT being on the ski lift and having so many memories of my childhood come back to me. All of the little things like racing to the bottom and spraying snow on each other with big stops; bunny ears with our ski poles so we could keep track of each other; tucking our poles under our arms to go faster; getting Nibs on the ski lift with Dad; turkey sandwich lunches packed by Mom. So much fun to reminisce with Dad for a little while. It was basically the first time I had exercised since getting pregnant though, so I got beat pretty quick..... The kids did awesome. When it was time for the lesson to start, I was saying goodbye to the kids and noticed Jackson wipe his face a bit; he would move his skis back and forth super fast to try to move but would instead fall down. I kneeled down and realized he was crying, and asked if he wanted to go inside or have Dad pick him up or what. He said no, and I asked if he was frustrated because he kept on falling. He said yes, he didn't want to do the lessons, he just wanted to ski! It was the cutest thing ever. He was so determined to get going, and he worked hard during the lesson and both he and Lily were able to take off the ski tip connectors by the end. I was very impressed. They just went up the magic carpet and skied down over and over again. We pushed them a bit too hard and Lily ended up in tears she was so exhausted, but overall it was a wonderful day. I am so grateful that Mom and Dad just made it a fun thing - it really was an awesome part of growing up and I love that in a few years we could go as a family! Pretty exciting.
The next day was a big turning point for me and Lily. Ever since Jack was born I have struggled with remembering she is still a baby/toddler/little girl/big girl, and not older than that, just because of her younger siblings being the comparison. She was upset about something and throwing a tantrum and I was about to just leave her alone to calm down, but with the memory of how I was brought up so fresh in my mind from our ski day, I asked myself what my parents would have said to me. So I told her how much I loved her and what a special girl she is and how proud and happy I am to be her mom. It was a wonderful exchange we had and I feel I am doing better with how I handle our relationship with that experience in mind. Still a lot of work though!
This picture was taken during the International Festival at her school. She decided to do her report on Canada, and was so cute telling all of the facts about it. She was quite sad when Isaac ripped it up the next day....in my defense I was in the bathroom. He loves Ada and so instead is expressing the transition of not being the baby anymore by being super destructive. Thank heavens someone started a playgroup in the neighborhood!
Here are some shots of our smiley girl. She LOVES being talked to and will gurgle and blow bubbles and give huge smiles whenever she gets attention.
And I think I finally got a baby with some Dabney genes instead of Bird ones. She is growing quite a bit faster than the others, and I got out the 6 mo clothes the other day. Unfortunately we haven't put Isaac in a bed yet so he is in the crib and Ada still in the bassinet. Mom was visiting last week and described it as a sleeping bag for her: "Do you think it is cramping her personality?" (Adam agreed when I repeated the question to him.) It's true there is only about 4 inches left of wiggle room....
Also when Mom and Dad were here Lily set up this little town, made invitations for people to come watch the show, and put on a little performance with barn animals and toys. She was pretty excited - maybe a bit too much as one morning she woke up at 5:30 a.m. to start working on it because Mom and Dad had arrived the night before when the kids were sleeping, and she wanted to do it before school started. She was kind of silly with her 'plot' but it definitely had potential and reminded me of when Amanda and I were little and we would make little movies of simple silly stories.
Lily loves to take pictures of her sister, and will set up things like this. She thinks it's the greatest thing ever when Ada is sitting up. Cute girls! I mentioned Ada loves it when people talk to her - especially Lily! Lily will stroke her cheek to get her to smile, and loves to show anyone around what a happy baby we have.
This post was all smiles and happiness! Probably because it's a lot easier to blog happily about your kids when one is in school, one at a playdate, and two sleeping; and not one whining about how hard school was "I work so hard in school and then I come home and you want me to work hard by putting away my clothes that you folded and placed on my bed! It's not fair!", one either playing the Wii or throwing a tantrum because you turned it off after an hour, one crying to be held because he just woke up and didn't sleep long enough but it was too loud from the whining and tantrum throwing, and one crying to be fed which involves you glued to the couch (a.k.a. cue kid #3 to wonder around the house looking for toys to throw down the stairs, toothpaste to smear in the bathroom, etc. or just stand next to the couch screaming to stop feeding Ada). And Adam coming home in 20 minutes, with not a dinner plan in sight. Still working on those tough afternoon hours - I need to be better organized in the morning.....
