Almost 6 Weeks With Annea

Annea Annea Annea! She is so sweet and soft and chubby already and wide eyed, and smiling! I'm experiencing that falling in love feeling, and its so fun. Sometimes when she's sleeping I pick her up just to snuggle her and inhale her sweet baby smell and nuzzle the top of her head. It's made me realize that when Eliana was born, it was still all about Adessa. I was so worried about how Adessa would feel, replaced or displaced. Eliana "gave" Adessa a present the first time Adessa came to the hospital to see her baby sister. We asked people to talk to Adessa first, not coo over Baby Eliana right away, acknowledging her "big sister status. Sheesh. First time parents of two, my goodness. This time around, it was "Here's your baby sister, girls, deal with it." And they have.

Annea was looking alert, aware, and super interested in me the other day, so I got the camera and proceeded to be SO charming, witty and persistent that she smiled! For the camera! This is a little warm up grin, and then...


Smiling!! Her first real, big, dimple-producing, smile! Right on her 5 week birthday, and caught on film.


The girls!


Daddy and the girls.


Annea is a scooter, somehow got herself half-on and half-off her little bed.



Warning: This next one is not for the weak of heart (or stomach).
In one end and out the other! (And onto the floor, notice! And on every single piece of clothing I was wearing, including my underwear. Needless to say, we showered and were late to church.)



I'm happy to report I'm adjusting well, too. I am dealing with having three kids better than I expected. My hope has always been that the adjustment to three kids would be no harder for me than the adjustment to two. And when Calvin is gone, it is challenging, and I see myself snappy and crabby and cranky and not the gentle, give-the-benefit-of-the-doubt, patient mom that I am working to be. But it's doable! We are surviving! The house is holding up, even if it's dirty.* And I know how fast this baby-time goes, and I am enjoying it! I'm trying to be present and soak it up. **

*Here's how I analyze the devolution of our housekeeping. Normally, I notice something needs doing and put it on a list (because I loooove lists), and then I do it within a day or two. Now, I notice something needs doing, and put it on many lists (because I keep starting over on tiny scraps of paper that I then can't find), and it gets done by Calvin in a week or two.

**Along with the enjoyment of Annea's baby-ness, is the (hopeful) realization that this is our last baby. It is not bittersweet for me at all, it's just pure enjoyment. ***

***I'm having fun with stars. Along with the enjoyment of our last baby is the realization that I never have to be pregnant again! I'm so happy not being pregnant. I can eat without heart burn, sleep so comfortably, go to the bathroom at normal intervals instead of every 15 minutes, run and jump (okay, not yet, really, but soon!). I'm going to start working out (sometime, don't hold your breath, but I could!)