Abundant Recompense Copy

Back in mid-April we were able to go to farm day again at Melissa's family's farm. It was strange to be there without Addison, since he was in school. Even though we missed him, the girls and I and Bryn's preschool and church buddies had a great time. We got to hold chicks and hamsters and ducks and pet all sorts of other farm animals. Leah found the cows a bit frightening. But in her defense, there were a lot of 'em, and they were really loud and stinky. Bryn even got her picture taken for the newspaper, petting a pig (although we never looked to see if it ended up getting printed). Oh. My. Goodness. This picture should be in the dictionary next to the entry for "ridiculously cute." Bryn was in heaven holding this little duck. Leah and a bunny. She was so cute petting it! Bryn and Paige petting the horse "Driving" the tractor

We celebrated Leah's big day on May 7. It rained/snowed all day long. But it was a great day anyway, and I think she had a great time and felt really special. Addison and Brynny treated her like royalty all day long. It is fun to watch Leah getting big. She is very opinionated, but is learning to control herself, little by little. She loves to tag along with the big kids and do what they're doing. She also adores her baby brother and likes to help with him and hold and pet him whenever she can. Leah looks forward to Sundays because she loves nursery and loves to wear dresses. She has a sweet tooth like nobody's business. In fact, I went to get her out of her bed after her nap a few days ago, and she'd eaten nine dum dum suckers and a pack of smarties that she'd found in a bag on top of her dresser. Wow. She's trying to quit naps since we snipped the end of her beloved sucker, but hopefully Daddy and I can prevail upon her to pick them up again. We shall see. She...

Our little Ace hit 2 weeks on Saturday! He is a sweet, sweet little baby. During the day he eats every threeish hours, followed by awake time, and then he drifts off to sleep. At night we let him go as long as he will between feedings, usually somewhere around four hours, then I feed him, Nate changes and burps him, and he snuggles on Daddy's chest until he falls asleep. It's cute. He continues to be the spit up champion of the world, which is growing old (it's laundry day, what can I say). But he seems to be gaining plenty of weight and is generally happy. We'll see what the doc says at his 2 week appointment tomorrow. His sisters and brother adore him. Leah is getting used to not being the baby, which has been quite an adjustment for her. But Nate and I have noticed some major improvement in her behavior just in the past two days. So hopefully it'll just get better and better. She loves to help with him and hold and "pet" him. She even did his hair this ...

I tell you what: recovering from giving birth is no joke. Having done it 3.5 times now, I don't know how those farm women in the 1800s with 12 children did it. That said, it is happening. Slowly, but surely I'm seeing little signs of beginning to get the good ol' bod back. I can roll over in bed now in less than 15 seconds, for example. Progress! It's been enjoyable hearing from friends and family since our little new arrival. Everyone has been so kind. Two of my very faves: This from Nate's grandparents: "2 boys and 2 girls. How clever of you." And from an old coworker of Nate's: " I really like Old Testament names.  You always can be sure they will sound good over a hospital loudspeaker paging a famous surgeon, or a bailiff telling the people in the courtroom to rise, for Judge Asa W_____.  Benjamin has the same nice heft (or he can use both names)." Someday when I'm old I want to write things like that to people when they have babies. ...

I've gotten a number of comments from a number of people about Asa's hair. The amount, but more especially the color. No one can believe how dark it is when they see our other kids. I went back through some old pictures to remember what all his sibs looked like when they were born and found these little gems. Addison Bryn Leah   Asa  All dark as dark could be. I fully anticipate him going blonde within the first year just like these guys.

First off, I must say that the timing was impeccable. That very day I'd turned to mighty prayer as my last hope of ever having the baby. I begged that if it wouldn't mess up the grand scheme of things somewhere down the road, just please, please  let the baby come. And that very morning, there were noticeable and somewhat consistent contractions. Also, it is crazy that Nate's mom got here when she did. Of all the days and hours and minutes she could've arrived, she picked the perfect moment. Nate and I were able to head out the door like 30 minutes after she got here. After simultaneously being in labor and caring for all the kids all day, I needed that. Really bad. And I was strep B positive, so had to have penicillin at the hospital. The ideal timing for it is to get the penicillin, have it in your system for four hours, and then have the baby. And it was just about right. He came about four and a half hours after the i.v. And it was on his due date. Seriously, this b...