Scissortail Silk

I follow a group on Facebook called Scissortail Silk, and I really love the posts.  They always make me feel better about myself and my role as a working mom.  It encourages me, and the posts always seem to have perfect timing.  

Life has been particularly challenging lately with sick kids, a baby that doesn't sleep consistently, spring fever, and simply the monotony of working full time and having 3 kids.  Adam and I make a good team, but having 3 little kids so close in age has made for some stressful and challenging days.  Life right now is mostly "divide and conquer" for Adam and I.  Making time and "being in the moment" are not always easy.  

I often don't have time to sit down and look at Facebook until the very end of my day, and by then I'm falling asleep and totally exhausted.  (I can't tell you how many nights I have fallen asleep with my phone in-hand as I attempt to unwind and read.)  Here's last night's post on Scissortail Silk, and I just couldn't let it pass by without documenting it somewhere...

"Friend, I know how overwhelmed your heart sometimes feels, and I know how down-to-the-bone tired—yes, completely exhausted—you are most days. I know what it feels like to spend hour after hour holding or rocking or feeding a fussy baby, a sick baby, or a baby who just refuses to close his precious little eyes. 

I know how small hands that shake us in the night to tell us about a bad dream or cries that send us running into door frames and across Lego minefields can make for a long day. I know how restless nights can make today feel like an extension of yesterday. And yesterday an extension of the day before. And how all of your days seem to run together. I know what it feels like to be standing in a place where tomorrow looks like more of the same, with no end in sight. I get it.

Momma, I totally get it. Maybe you woke up ready for today to be different. Happy attitudes, extra patience, and NO YELLING! And maybe by 8:15 a.m. you realized that it was going to be another day full of cranky babies, demanding toddlers, and guilt from losing your temper when you could have just taken a deep breath and calmly repeated your request to your five-year-old…for the hundredth time.

Maybe breakfast, or lunch or dinner, is still out on the counter, and you can‘t stop to clean it up because you have to find another pair of Buzz Lightyear undies since all of those online articles on how to potty train your kid in thirty-six hours were a bunch of bunk. Maybe you‘re out of diapers, and the milk has gone bad, and the bill you paid a week ago got lost in the mail. Maybe you‘re about to run to the grocery store with hungry kids, while wearing a sweatshirt over last night‘s pajamas. Maybe you‘re on your third ear infection this month, or it feels like you have visited the doctor‘s office so often that you should have your own reserved parking spot.

Maybe everything that could go wrong has gone wrong and nothing seems fixable—you don‘t know how you‘ll make it, but you keep going because there are no other options and if you come undone—then everything and everyone else will come unraveled with you.

Sweet friend, I hear you.

Sometimes I want to scream when I read words that tell me to cherish these moments. These moments of pure exhaustion when I am hanging on by a thread. When I don‘t remember the last time I had a proper meal or felt like I wasn‘t in charge of everything. When my heart wasn‘t torn by the guilt of craving a moment for myself, while knowing that I should appreciate the gift of having a family to love.

Because we already know it‘s true. We know that one day we will look around and miss all of this madness. But today—in the middle of it—we don‘t need to add guilt to our exhaustion, and we certainly don‘t want to have to add "find joy" to our to-do list.

We just need hope (and maybe a long uninterrupted nap).

We need to know that somewhere someone else feels the same way that we do. We need to believe that we aren‘t alone. And beyond having hope that tomorrow could be different, we need to know that there is purpose in where we are standing today.

Friend, there is only one way that we are going to have the strength to keep going. There is only one way that we are going to have all that it takes to love our families with the love that they deserve, the love we so desperately want to give them. We must become rooted in the Truth of who God is calling us to be by hearing and believing the Truth of who He says that we already are."

- From the book Hope Unfolding.  (I think I need to add this to my summer reading list!)   

The Littlest One

Annie Pie is 5 months old!  She's grown and changed so much lately!!  She's so generous with her smiles, and loves to be talked to.  When we talk to her, she gets really stiff and excited, as if she's saying, "Please pick me up!!"  She's cooing all of the time now, and it's so adorable.  She even giggles outloud when we interact with her.

My mom thinks she looks like Adam.  She has his hair cowlick and his dark eyes.  She's also in the 98th percentile for length, so maybe she has some Bergman height in her.  I think she has a smile like Blaire.

One evening before bed, Adam was holding Annie and Vera was talking to her.  Suddenly, she started some deep belly giggles.  It was the first time we'd ever seen her laugh so hard, and it was so sweet, especially because all 3 of us were sitting right there to watch.  :)

A few selfies.  Annie doesn't look so impressed...

Annie also loves to spit, slobber and chew on her fists.  She wears a bib everyday, otherwise her outfits are completely soaked.  If she can't find her fists, she'll chew on her blankets, bibs and sleeves.  She even gnaws on her pacifier if it's in her mouth.

She's really started to interact with her toys a lot more.  She reaches and grips the toys on her playmat.  In the bouncy seat, she bats at them and can even get them to make noise.  Annie Pie loves her sound aquarium in her bed, and sometimes lies in there for 20-30 minutes watching and listening contentedly.

1-26-16
Almost 4 months

She follows us across the room, and is not fond of being left alone in a room.  She holds her head up so well and she likes to sit up.  Even when lying back in her bouncy seat or high chair, she's always lifting her head up to sit more straight.  When she lies on her belly, she holds her head up nice and high and kicks her little legs.  Then, after a little bit, she rolls right over to her back.  She's starting to arch her back to her side, showing early stages of trying to roll from her back to belly.  The older two are good with her on the floor.  Vera has a hard time staying out of her face, but Mr. Vin usually leaves her alone.  He's good about not stepping on her, but occasionally she does have a flying toy hit her.  He's also been known to toss his shoes and sippy in her bed when she's in there.  Eek!  Poor girl is going to be tough with Wild Man Vince running around.

First time in Bumbo
2-12-16
4 months

The TV catches her eye.  This is a rare moment where "all is calm" even though the house is a toy cyclone.

Her sleeping habits leave much to be desired.  For most of her 3rd and 4th month, she slept all night regularly as long as she was wrapped tight in her swaddle.  Then, suddenly she started waking up more and more often.  I decided to not fall into the trap of feeding her, and honestly, I don't think she's waking because she's hungry.  She has such a hard time putting herself back to sleep if she wakes up.  In the middle of the night, as soon as someone picks her up and gives her the pacifier, she's right back to sleep.  We're still swaddling her, but we've noticed that she gets so hot when she's all wrapped up.  Slowly, we're trying to get her out of the swaddle and into something where she has her arms free.  But, she doesn't sleep well when her arms are free; it's almost a guaranteed 3:30am wake up cry.  She likes to have a blanket by her face when she's sleeping.  Patty let us in on that little secret, and it's been very helpful.

Annie is a good eater.  She takes 6-7 ounces in her bottles, and is starting to become a very nosy baby when nursing.  When she was nearly 5 months, we started cereal.  She had a hard time learning the "swallow" concept, but she's doing better each day.  We decided to give her cereal around suppertime because it was too stressful to fit that in at bedtime.  Between bathing the older 2, snacks, and the general chaos of our household, it was too crazy to try to give her cereal too.  She likes her cereal, but she sure does make a big "messy mess" when eating it!

Before her first cereal
2-23-16

One of the first nice days outside in the stroller.

Vera snapped this picture of us during Annie's 4 month well check and shots.  Annie was a trooper!

Annie Pie, you're growing and changing so fast!  You sure are sweet, and so very content.  As I often tell you, "We love you a whole baby bug bunch!"  Stay sweet and snuggley forever!