Pics of the Fam

And just because I haven't put any up in awhile and a friend wants some:

The Original.

Lizzy Lou. Who is getting into this baby-thing and "nursed" her Curious George via her belly button tonight. Oh, and according to her that is also how babies enter the world (from one's belly button).

Miss Gracie. Future President.

Johnny and Ellie (not our dog). But we need one because, well, look at The Boy's face.

Sweet Annie at 2 weeks.

And because this pic reminds me so much of Ainsley...

So Conceited

That's me. I had convinced myself and announced to many that one more kid would not make that much of a difference in our household. If you knew us, who would think otherwise? After triplets, why would one_more_child really mess us up? Put me off my game?

Well, our sweet littlest ball of sugar has done just that. I feel like I'm having to reinvent the wheel of Managing Life here at Chez Laird and it's blowing my mind. Now, Annie is easy (at least for a newborn). She's sweet, she's mellow, and even though she truly believes Happy Time is for about 1 1/2 hours in the middle of the night, and we only exist to hold and feed her, she is wonderful.

But as delightful as she is, I am not functioning. I can't figure out how to get everyone to the grocery store without messing up breakfast/lunch/taking A to school/nap time/picking A up from school/etc. I can't figure out how to get anything done - like the dishes. Or putting the kids to bed within an hour of when they are supposed to be in delightful slumber.

Pure pride and conceit. That's all I can think of when I reflect on the words I spoke of how Number Five wasn't going to make that big of an impact on our schedule. They are words I am now humbly choking down without any sort of chaser.

Annie Bananie Pic!

Sweet Annie. December 16th, 2010 and about 1 hour into this crazy world.

We think she holds a remarkable resemblance to her oldest sister, who thinks that is awesome. She was ~ 4 days??

Our Early Christmas Present

Annie, formerly known as Cinco, safely arrived into this world!

As John would put it, here's the Tale of the Tape:

Arrival: December 16th
Length: 21"
Weight: 7 lb, 14 oz

It was completely surreal to not go into labor and just breeze into the hospital and have a baby. We had this c-section scheduled 5 days after our due date because we were attempting a v-back, but Annie would have nothing of it. She had only granted me a few Braxton-Hicks to get my hopes up, but we are supposing the kid simply had too much play space (thank you triplet sibs) and had no desire to exit the premises.

Pics to follow...

Quick Note To Cinco

You are 4 days past due and do not appear to be in a hurry or concerned your mother is down to only a couple clothing choices, neither of which are flattering and make me feel as though I should walk around in fuzzy slippers with curlers in my hair and smoking a cig to make the outfit look complete.

I had an ultrasound today to make sure everything is okay with you and the only surprise is that you appear to be enormous (pushing 8 lbs), at least by this family's standards.

You have made me so big that your brother pointed to a picture of a whale yesterday and announced "Mommy, that is you!". Note: NO ONE in this house, including myself, has mentioned anything about my ginormous belly. The Boy, who is now firmly planted on my list, came up with it all on his own.

You are deeply loved.

Buddies?

Who would have thought these two would form a friendship. My boy and my girly-girl princess play together more often any other combo and I can't figure it out. One would assume, knowing these two, that he would be ignored by her (at best). For some reason he thinks she's the berries and she is nicer to him than the girls. Not sure if it's the fact that the current littlest girls are so incredibly independent they don't need to play with anyone, or that they don't allow themselves to be directed by Ainsley like Johnny does (which does not endear them to her), or a combination of the two...

Regardless, it's fun to see Ainsley finally enjoying one of her siblings and to also have two of them in non-battle mode. Actually, it's sweet. Very, very sweet.

John had a meeting one night and Ainsley informed me I wouldn't have to put Johnny to bed - she would do it. And she did. Right down to the reading of books and snuggle time, which was a total surprise since A is one of my two cold-pricklies. What was even more of a surprise was that he cried when she left because he wanted her to snuggle longer.





He is also willing (please forgive me, Sweet Boy, for posting this!) to play "Beauty Shop" with her. Today she brought him down and he proudly showed off his new hairdo, which of course I don't have a picture of. He looked good, though. Trust me.

Typical beauty shop set-up.

Well, This Is Embarrassing

So for the last few days I've been meaning to tell John something was wrong with the steering in the super-hot minivan. Every time I turned the wheel I would hear some sort of rasping sound and I was bummed every time because I was not looking forward to the logistics of how to handle life without the ability to cart all the kids around for the several hours/days it would take to have the thing fixed.

I diagnosed the problem on my way to pick up the littlest ones from preschool and was mortified. The sound? My steering wheel scraping against my ginormous belly every time I made a turn.

Four more weeks. I can do this.