Four Months Old!

Miss Caroline Mae is four months old. Well, she has been for four days now.

She's a happy girly, don't you think?

And she loves sticking out her tongue these days.
A lot. All the time. Makes us laugh.
Went to the doctor on Valentine's Day. She weighed in just over 15 pounds - almost double her birth weight. She's been putting some growing in, that's for sure. Grew two whole inches, which explains why she's outgrowing her 3-6 month stuff already. Sheesh! Gonna have to get her some more footy jammies soon.
The highlights about Miss Caroline:

She sorta giggles. She prefers to squeal though.

She loves her brothers and her big sister.

Her favorite toy is her little sunshine. Henry has a song for her about it.

She loves it when I sing "You are my sunshine." LOVES it!

She's grabbing on to things, especially long hair - Laurel and I have to watch out.

She thinks she's a kitty cat and only has to take cat naps.

Love this baby girl. Even more than last month.

Good, and crazy, boys

Since my last post was super Debbie Downer, here's a happy, photo heavy post.

Caught James being a good brother - reading his favorite book to his baby sister.

She's super interested, right? I wonder if my big brothers were as excited about me as these boys are about Caroline. They love making her smile and squeal and laugh. They are so proud of themselves when they do. It makes me melt every time when they come running to me to say: "Mommy, Caroline smiled at me!"
Saturday brought some big snowflakes and a little bit of snow (that is gone already - boo!). Henry wanted to play in it, and certainly didn't want to wait get dressed.

He had on the necessaries - a diaper and my clogs. What more does he need?

Yeah dude, you have no clothes one!
Eating the snow - why does snow taste so awesome? There's nothing like it. I even sneak a bit when the kids aren't looking. I get the appeal.


Have a great week - I know I'm trying!

Where do you find the faith?

Life is difficult, and there have been too many moments lately where I question a whole lot of decisions. I'm trying to hang in there, to be faithful, but I'm failing at that more and more.

But still there are silver linings:

After months of struggling, Laurel is finally grasping math concepts that were impossible before. Patience has won out. She still drags out her lessons, but I'm more understanding of that, thanks to a very helpful book called "The Misunderstood Child." Having a husband with several learning disabilities means I'm likely to have children with them. One interesting thing I learned is that ADHD is just as prevalent in girls as it is in boys, but boys are diagnosed at a greater rate because they act out their distractions, where girls are labeled spacy and distracted and left at that. Laurel gets distracted all. the. time. Every day. Every other minute. Instead of trying to change her, I'm just being more patient about it. And she doesn't get distracted with everything. Give the girl art supplies and she can concentrate like nobodies business.

All the big kids love their baby sister. They love to make her smile. James was brokenhearted last night because Caroline wasn't smiling at him (she was tired, hungry and grumpy). Fortunately, she got over that and gave him a gigantic (James' favorite word these days) smile.

William's reading skills are coming along. It's gratifying to see progress, to know that, even in a small way, I am teaching my children.

So, while I struggle, I'm not forgetting to be grateful. Just need to find my faith again.