Four

:: Last night, our little family sat down at our new dining table to share dinner together. It was a cozy (what wonders a single lit candle can do!) and very busy meal.

Really and incredibly busy.

Gabriel and Bronwyn kept reciting movie lines back and forth. I know I was only gone for 3 weeks, but I don't remember them being old enough to entertain one another quite so much or quite so loudly. Jackson and Gabriel warred for the Who Can Get In Trouble The Most For Drumming With Their Utensils title. I balanced a somewhat fussy Aubrey in one arm while eating stew with my free hand. Daniel cut potatoes and beef and buttered biscuits between bites of his own meal.

The noise heightened and heightened. It seemed the more Daniel and I worked to create peace and quiet, the funnier Gabriel thought himself, the louder Bronwyn's singing became, the more displeased with his dinner Jack was, and the intenser Aubrey's squawking grew.

You know what they say, right?

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

And that's just what we did!

:: I know from firsthand experience that every time a baby's born, the up-until-then-youngest-child ages instantaneously, but I still can't get over how old Jackson is now. Do you know that he runs around the house trying to imitate Gabriel's light saber fights and Spiderman moves? And would you believe me if I told you that this child who only issues a handful of words in an entire day makes action figures "talk" to each other?

The other night, Uncle Merrick and Cousin Jameson were over. Jackson was very disinterested in anything Jameson was doing and rather clearly communicated to all of us that he is much more in league with Gabriel and Merrick than with the cousin who is only 8 months younger than him.

So very mature, you know.

:: On Sunday morning, Bronwyn cried and cried in protest of the nursery for the first time in her life. She wanted only to be with us and we could not resist her pleas, so in she came to the sanctuary to sit with Mom and Dad (and Jackson, who often sleeps on our laps rather than playing in the nursery). By the end of the sermon, our little sanguine was tipping her head upside down and trying to look at people behind her from underneath her chair. Her hair barrettes had long since come undone (about 20 times) and her curls hung in a matted, knotted mess. She was pouting after being denied the plate of communion crackers despite her attempts at convincing us that she needed some "be'tause I'm huuu-ngry!"

Daniel and I were both wondering who got all soft and decided to let her sit through the sermon in the first place!

:: I am exhausted, in part due to the waking with Aubrey during the night, but mostly because my body is having to calibrate itself to the demands of four children when I'm used to three. The physical and emotional requirements of parenting have me absolutely reeling!

But even when I'm sure I can't handle one more straw, I'm even more sure I can't imagine life without the ups and downs that each one of my children represents. I love that I get to be their mom. They truly are wonderful gifts, straight from a loving and generous Father.