Beautiful Moments

I absolutely love capturing these beautiful moments...even if that means I have to run into another room, grab my camera, and try not to disturb the beautiful moment by taking a picture of it. A lot of the time I just look and absorb, but this time I captured it on film.

Chiara has been wanting to read to Leah for some time now and Leah has continued to say no. She's two, what do you want? Well, Friday morning she said YES! Chiara was so excited. She picked out a Berenstain Bear book and started reading. She told me that this was her "dream come true". It is one of my dreams too. Not only is Chiara an amazing reader at 6 years old, but her desire to spend time with her sister fills my cup! It is my prayer that our girls will become best friends-a great reward for having our children so close in age. When I see these beautiful moments I am encouraged that they are on their way!

You can tell it's bedtime because......

Leah is screaming, Mayah is talking, and Chiara is trying to get one more minute with Emma before bed. All while Emma is fussing and David and I are trying to keep our cool. Mayah goes pee about 4 times before staying in her bed and bedtime seems to be her story time. She talks and talks and talks. That's nothing compared to Leah's nightly routine....screaming, fighting, fit. It sucks. Part of it is her age-we have been here before....2 years ago. Part of it has been since Emma arrived. We have tried so many things-spankings, sitting with her, yelling, talking, ignoring. There is nothing that "works" or has fixed the problem. We always prep the girls for bedtime too-no surprises, but that does not seem to help either. It sucks.

Yes, it will pass. They have all done this at some point. Tonight I took some time to lay with Chiara in bed and love on her-at bedtime she is so well behaved that she seems to get the short end of the stick. It seems forever ago that she was getting out of her bed and falling asleep on the floor. She gives me hope that someday we will totally be out of this phase.

A Month Gone By

Has a month really gone by?! Only 4 weeks ago (ok, I am writing this a week later so technically 5 weeks ago) Emma Lynne was all tucked up inside me. An amazing thought.

I cannot say these 5 weeks have been easy. Balancing a house of four girls in Arizona in the summer can be a challenge. We are stuck inside most of the time, which is difficult for kids who love running around outside. Emma has had her challenges too. I have too much milk and had to do block feeding to be able to stabilize my supply. Thanks to a dear high school friend who is a "pro" breast feeder in my opinion I have learned something new about nursing and milk supply. Who would have thought too much milk can cause so many problems.

Emma is still an infant so lots of sleeping during the day and up at night-anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. There are nights when she sleeps a 6 or 7 hour stretch, and those are the nights she is up for about 2 hours after. She has a fussy time between 7 pm and 9pm. She only wants me to hold her, does not want to nurse, but likes to be "bopped" and walked around.

Just last week she started making some baby noises and a couple facial expressions. A sign of things to come. I do not want time to go faster, though I am certainly looking forward to a little bit better sleep.

All three girls are still head over heels in love. Chiara and Mayah are always asking to hold Emma and Leah comes to rub her a few times a day. Chiara was so excited that I let her change Emma's diaper the other day-it was just wet. I think it really made her day. She is very motherly and loving. Even at 5 weeks old I can tell that Emma knows her sisters. The way she looks at them is amazing.

I did take her on the scale with me since we will not have her weighed for another month and
it was a 10 pound difference!!!!! Ten pounds already?!?!? Wow! No wonder I am so tired and hungry-this girl eats!

So, here's to another 4 weeks.....