OtterPops: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Emma has been growing up so fast and she will be 4 months here in the next week. I can't believe it! She is "talking" or "singing" recently which is so fun. Especially when we returned home from our trip and she hadn't seen Jared in a week she "told" him all about it with all different inflections and pitches and coos much to his delight. It was sooo cute. Here is the good, the bad and the ugly for the month:


The Good: She is so cute sporting the bonnet and all the moms in the "mother's room" at church agree that bonnets are way under-used for little girls these days.

The Bad: Tummy time. She still dislikes it as much as all of my other kids have. It's torture to listen to her be so sad

The Ugly: How can something so cute and small create such a big mess?? And several times a day. Today she's wearing her 4th outfit...Much to Jocelyn & Lillian's delight...They love picking out new outfits for her while I'm scrubbing poop out of all the laundry

I've been contemplating the pros and cons of having four kids so close together for a number of reasons. I recently returned from a trip to D.C. with just Jocelyn and Emma. My oldest and my youngest...it was soooo easy. Granted, I had my sisters cooking and cleaning for us and I was able to sleep in, but truly. It was a cake walk compared to everyday life. People in the airport were telling me: "you're so brave to go across country with two little ones" while I was thinking: "this is a walk in the park! I only have half my kids and not even the ones that tease and fight with each other!" Lately I have been seeing the direct contrast of the day-to-day life of Jocelyn when she was a baby and now when Emma is a baby. I've decided there are good and bad parts of being "the 4th".

Emma in Carseat

Cons:

Emma spends more time in her car seat as we take kids to and from school, preschool, playdates and doctor's appts.
She doesn't get carried around in the sling or picked up every time she cries, or rocked to sleep by yours truly because I just don't have time. I rely on the baby swing to rock her, let her cry it out, etc.
She has to learn to sleep and function through tons of noise that are just constant in our house full of small kids and their friends.
She doesn't have as many pictures or videos taken of her because I am trying to attend to the needs of 3 other young children throughout the day

Jocelyn & Lillian giving an impromptu puppet show for Emma's entertainment one day

Pros:

She has a full entertainment crew/adoring committee at her disposal singing songs to her, playing pat-a-cake, talking to her or shaking rattles for her
She has a more experienced mother who (hopefully) is doing a better job than she was with her 1st. I feel like I can just enjoy her more rather than worrying about every little way I do things
She'll learn the talent of sleeping anywhere and through a lot of noise-this is a great life skill. Trust me

I wouldn't change our crazy situation for the world. I think that it is beneficial for our kids to have each other to learn from and play with even if it can be chaotic. Jared and I will be celebrating our 9th anniversary in a couple weeks and these are the combined statistics we were adding up the other day of our past 9 year adventure together: