Two Weeks

It's been two weeks since our darling Sammie was born and life has definitely been different. As far as babies go, Sammie rocks. She sleeps really well at night (last night she went to bed at 11:45 and didn't wake up until 6:30), eats really well (I nurse as well as bottle feed and she does equally well with both), is awake in big chunks during the day, and is (mostly) content when she is awake. We all adore this sweet baby girl. Clayton and Noah love sitting next to her, holding her, and kissing her goodnight. Josie isn't as enthralled with her as the boys are but she will frequently tell us, "Inna hode it!" (I want to hold it) and "I wike it!" (I like it). Justin and I think it's pretty funny that she calls Sammie 'it', but hopefully eventually she'll catch on. I was fortunate enough to have Justin home all week last week and it was glorious! Four kids is hectic and, since one of them is an infant, we're hanging on one day at a time right now but having Justin home last week gave me confidence that we can get through this! Today we're doing a picture overload of some pictures I've taken over the past two weeks. Nothing spectacular (we haven't gone anywhere or done anything) but Sammie has changed so much so I'm going to throw in all my pictures. She's thinned out a bit (she's still a big baby, but not as chunky as she was at birth) and has lost that 'fresh out of the oven' look. You can make your own judgements, but I think she looks more like Josie than the boys. Especially when she's sad.
I know that eventually she'll figure out which one of these fingers is her thumb and she'll suck that one exclusively, but until then, she likes to use the 'rock star' approach to self soothing.

In the bouncy seat. This seat was gifted to us when Clayton was a baby and it has saved our sanity countless times since. Sammie is the fourth Smith baby to love it!

Josie making a stink face. She looks a little beat up, but it was self inflicted (she got her fingernails clipped right after this picture was taken). I put it in because it's cute!

Sad Sammie. I really think she looks like Josie when she's crying. Poor baby. She is so sad, but her mom insists on taking pictures.

I love her little face!

Sweet little profile.

I tried to take a good shot of her face, but she's not super cooperative yet. I do think these 3/4 shots are pretty cute though.

This picture cracks me up! The boys love holding Sammie and I try to take good pictures of them holding her, but this was the best I could get. I do love it though! Clayton's face makes me laugh and Noah's smile looks so happy.

Josie wanted to hold 'it'. I love her crazy facial expression and you can finally see Sammie's face full on! I love these two cute sisters!

Josie loved Sammie's shirt. More specifically, she loved the pink on Sammie's shirt. It's a bit early for clothes sharing though Jos!

She does love holding Sammie, but she lets you know when she's had enough (she usually doesn't last long). She'll say, "Mama turn to hode it!"

Clayton was at school when I was taking these pictures. I need to get a shot of all four of them together.

Here's a cute one of Noah and Sammie.

I love this cute face!

Sleepy Sammie.

On a different note, today was Noah's first day of preschool. He was so excited. From the time he woke up he asked me every five minutes if it was time to go yet.

He was too excited to give me a genuine smile (and I tried all my tricks to get one), but I love these cheesy grins!

I didn't take any pictures when I dropped him off. It was a little hectic, so I figured I'd take pictures when I picked him up. As you can see. He was not thrilled to be picked up. He wanted to stay at school. His teacher at one point said, "Well, you don't want to sleep here do you?". He did.

Noah and his teacher, Mrs. M. I got to know her a little bit last year because Noah's class was across the hall and I love her! I'm really excited that Noah gets to be in her class this year. I know he's going to have a super fun year. (Again, this was after school, so he's refusing to cooperate with me. Perhaps my boys love school a little too much??)

Noah wasn't the only one who loved school today! When we went to pick Noah up, Josie ran into the classroom and began to play like she owned the place. It was fun to watch her for a second, but it stopped being fun the moment I told her it was time to go. Picture me exiting the building: Carseat in one hand, screaming two year old in the other, diaper bag and purse draped around my shoulders. Oh I was a sight to be seen!

Fortunately, Sammie decided that she'd cut me a break and slept through the whole thing. One mopey four year old and a screaming two year old were about all I was emotionally prepared to handle this afternoon. Good girl Sammie!

All in all it's been a good two weeks. I'm pretty fortunate that I got to have Justin home. I'm also fortunate that Justin goes in late enough right now that he's able to get Clayton off to school before he leaves for work. Right now life with four seems doable. Certainly not easy, but doable. Although I'll admit, I've got pretty good kids, and there's no other group of people I'd rather be tired and frazzled for!