Growing Pains?

It's rough, a sweet tiny daughter who doesn't have clue that night time is for sleeping.

Last night, instead of sleeping, we watched Friends on DVD. (Season 6, disc 1, in case you were wondering. "I'm SO DRUNK!").

Anyway, suffice it to say I'm very very tired.

The joys outweigh the exhaustion. The sweet tiny baby moments that do not last nearly long enough. They grow and change before your very eyes, these tiny people!

The biggest joy (and frustration, if I'm being 100% honest) is how hard these boys love Miss Miri.

They love her. A lot. Ezra throws absolute tantrums if I carry Miriam into his line of sight and do not let him hold her. He sits on the couch, bangs on his thighs and screams "BABY!"repeatedly until I hand her over. There's no point in ignoring him. It's not worth the fight.

And Henry who says 123 times a day, "I LOVE OUR BABY GIRL!" And he does.

Spencer has taken to calling her "Meers" which... I don't entirely understand, but he says with with SUCH affection, I really can't get too grumpy.

And Oliver. Oh Oliver. He just wants to touch her.Touching her would be fine, except he has a snotty nose and I desperately want to keep Miriam from getting a cold.

I beg and beg him to please NOT touch her. And he really can't help himself.

But today, I was battling the sleepy, and Miriam had passed out after nursing, so I'd laid her in the recliner, and I was just taking a moment to sit on the couch and breathe.

Oliver, assuring me he would not touch, climbed up next to her and "read" her three different books, before he kissed her (sigh) and went off to play.



It was completely adorable.

We're definitely ironing out some wrinkles as a family of seven. The number of melt downs a child has 8in a day seems to be directly proportional to how old they are. (Henry: 1-2, Spencer:3-4, Oliver: 5-10, Ezra: cried all morning). But the moments like this make it all okay.

We're getting there.