We are settling into life as a family of six! The kids and I are learning how to make days work with four kids in the house, and we’re getting into a routine – with some help from three amazing friends who brought dinner by last week! They did a little more “creative” crafting than I would choose last week, getting into craft supplies (and turning non-craft supplies into craft supplies) on their own when I was busy taking care of Anna. Some of it was lovely (kleenex dresses for Barbie dolls), some of it was quite questionable (paper towels in rain puddles; we got a lot of rain this week!), and some of it problematic (puddles of white glue on paper towels on our wooden dining room table). After a discussion about waste and paper towels, they turned to puddles of white glue on fabric scraps on the same table. I only recently returned white glue to our craft supplies, and am already tempted to send it back to “time out”. We are still finding teeny tiny styrofoam balls that they broke off of a single sheet of styrofoam they found in the craft closet Thursday afternoon!
Baby Anna is much adored by her siblings. Jealousy has not been an issue, but giving Anna downtime from her adoring siblings can be a challenge! Luckily, Anna seems to enjoy most of the attention. She is awake more and more every day, and we took her out on her first neighborhood walk last week. I’m hoping that she’ll settle into a routine of waking to feed every three hours at night – she seems to be headed that direction. So far she is quite a mellow baby. She rarely cries, calms down quickly once her needs are met, and at night she makes me laugh by repeatedly clearing her throat to indicate she is hungry instead of screaming! She really enjoys looking at the family picture that is hung above our computer. We need to take one with her in it!
MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
She clears her throat when she’s hungry??? That’s so cute! You need to video that!
Congratulations! You are Superwoman for having four little ones and still blogging! Anna is beautiful.
So glad you are settling into a routine! She’s absolutely gorgeous.
I am not surprised that baby Anna is so mellow – it’s all in the name :) I hope the rest of the kiddos will find better outlets for their creativity than puddles of glue, but I love your sense of humor about it.
Hooray for mellow babies!
I laughed and laughed at the kid crafts that go on while you are being a new mommy! I can so relate! But at least they are “glued” to the TV?? :)
Your a fantastic mom! I’m glad you have 4!!!
Exactly – I find that TV makes my life easier in the short run, but harder in teh long run, so try to avoid using it…
She is so adorable MaryAnne! So glad everyone is adjusting well (minus the craft supplies)
wow! kudos to you for handling this! i think i’d stress out… so glad that you’re blessed with kiddos that are so comfortable and helpful.
Aww! What a sweet family you have, MaryAnne! Those photos are precious!
Thank you, Jane!
Oh my goodness! My daughter used to grunt when hungry too! She hardly ever cried and still has such an even temperament : )
My eyes are all welled up looking at these beautiful pics!!!
We have creative crafty here too and I don’t have a newborn excuse ; )
So sweet.
I am constantly torn between having art supplies available in our craft room (a section of our basement, so I am hardly ever down there which means that the kids occasionally go the disastrous route with paint, glue, etc) and keeping them somewhere out of reach. I know that styrofoam problem well too!
I didn’t expect my kids to have any jealousy issues given the age difference, but believe it or not, all three of my older kids had a few moments after Kate was born.
I won’t be surprised if jealousy issues emerge over time…
Awwwww…. it’s easy to tell they all adore each other!!
Any worry that adding more kids means that each child gets a smaller slice of the “love pie” soon becomes a wonderful realisation that the pie GREW! :) :)
(I wouldn’t feel even a moment’s compunction about hiding the white glue.)
Cute pictures! It’s wonderful that the older kids are adjusting so well to their new sibling.
So sweet. What an adorable family you have!
LOL about the white glue. Abby is 8 and ours is still stored out of reach. That stuff can be a disaster!
White glue definitely inspires my kids to make a BIG mess!
Very sweet and cute, glad it’s all going well :)
MaryAnne, Anna is GORGEOUS! And I love that you got photos of all three kids with her. I am so glad everything is going well and that you’re getting all that help and that there is so much love shared between the siblings. AND that a new routine is forming already. Yay! Isn’t it funny how much we need routines to keep us sane?
Thank you, LiEr! Routines definitely keep my family sane!
Oops, read it, but didn’t actually hit enter on my comment…….
It’s so nice when the baby settles into that 3 hour routine. We had to outlaw certain craft supplies for a while here because of abuses.
Sorry about the dining room table! So glad Anna is so mellow and that she is so adored.
What beautiful photos – so much love there. Anna looks so alert already too. Love all the creativity going on – in all its forms!
Reading about the throat clearing made me laugh. :-) She sounds very sweet!
So precious! I love the throat clearing, too cute. I’m so sorry about the glue puddles, but at least they are being creative :)
Sounds like you have your hands full, but it is going well. I know what you mean about finding that styrofoam lint all over the place. Gah! I once got it in a package and it took forever before I stopped finding it everywhere.
Anna is gorgeous, love the photos of your lovely children – congratulations xx