Horses!

Songbird has been asking to go horseback riding for her birthday for 3 years now.  We have had a few different leads, but nothing has ever panned out.  Finally, while talking to my aunt and uncle over Christmas, I discovered that they are part owners of a wonderful horse ranch in Dahlonega, GA.  When my uncle heard that Songbird was longing for a horseback ride, he invited us to come and join them for a weekend.  Last weekend, the first weekend of April, her dreams were realized.

At first we thought that only the older two would be able to ride in the corral and have a lesson, but then it turned out that all three of them were allowed to ride.  They spent an hour and a half in the corral, and by the end of the time they were all riding and steering their own horses.  It was so fun to see them be so brave and independent.  I remember loving the feeling of being high up on a horse as a little girl.

After the corral ride, Songbird and I, along with about 10 other people, went on a trail ride together.  Songbird was 2nd in line with her horse Clinger, right behind one of the guides, and because my horse, Scarlet, had personal space issues, I was at the end of the procession, just in front of the other guide.  All that to say, I almost never saw Songbird because we were separated by so many people, but I knew I was having a wonderful time taking in the landscape and enjoying the most beautiful day of the year, (and I assumed she was as well).

After the horse ride, the kids decided to take a swim in the enormous saltwater pool.  It was absolutely freezing, but they had fun jumping in for a few minutes and then drying off in the sun.  Hubry and I had a nice chat by the pool while Cuatro slept peacefully in his carseat (maybe because he was up so much in the night!!!).

We are so thankful to my aunt and uncle for inviting us and for their generosity in making Songbird's birthday wish come true.  It's hard to believe she'll be double digits in one short month!!!  The weather was amazing, and the landscape was that crisp, bright green of early Spring.  It was cold in the night and morning, but warmed up beautifully during the day.  We got to roast marshmallows and have campfires and watch the children enjoy God's beautiful creation.  We are so thankful...

Raindrop's horse was named Frodo. He was the tallest, yet gentlest, horse of all.

The beautiful view from the top of the hill.

If Songbird's cold, you know it must be cold!!!

Songbird and my uncle as we left for the trail.

First Day of Spring

Last week was cold - so cold we had fires burning upstairs and down all week long.  We even moved the couch to the middle of the room so that we could snuggle up close to the radiant heat.  Yesterday was the first official day of Spring.  And today it was so hot I had to turn the AC on in the car.   Talk about a drastic change in weather!  Aside from the time change making us all tipsy tour you, we are ready for Spring.

A few weeks ago the three oldest started playing soccer.  It is every Thursday for 2 hours and they all play at the same time (on different fields).  Kilometer Kids also started, which means Thursdays are crazy full of athletic endeavors.  I've been cooking a roast in the crock pot on these days because the kids have used up so much energy and need a quick, calorie-rich meal when we get home.  On a side note - Bro ran his pace-night mile in 7.36, and Songbird was right behin him with 7.39.  They are both  significantly faster than me now!  Thankfully they still enjoy going on runs with me when I ask.

We just finished reading the book Treasures of the Snow by Patricia St. John.  I had the copy my mother used to read to me when I was a little girl, and It was fun to finally introduce it to the kids.   It's such a beautiful story of redemption and forgiveness. One scene from the book particularly stuck with my youngest girl.  She is fiercely imaginative and desperately wants to believe that fairies, the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, and any other imaginative figure is truly real. She hasn't lost a tooth yet, but she put something under her pillow one night "just in case the tooth fairy was going to come to visit."  Well in the story the children leave their shoes outside overnight, and in the morning a new snow-white kitten is keeping warm inside Dani's shoe.  Raindrop decided she would leave her shoes outside and see if anything came to them in the night.  After nothing happened the first night, she did it again another night.  This time Hubry left a chocolate egg and a toy soldier inside the shoe for her. You can imagine her sheer joy.  The past few nights she's been leaving out her box with a cozy blanket inside.  This time she is waiting for a snow-white kitten.  At night she asks me if I think a kitten will be in her box in the morning.  I say, "no, I really don't."  But she brings the box out anyway...

6 Months

Sweet Cuatro,

You are 6 months old now, and you are blowing energy and excitement into our lives daily.  Around 5 months and 2 weeks you started crawling.  One day you got up on all fours and started rocking back and forth.  The next day you walked your hands forward a step or two, and the next day you could slowly make your way across a small room.  After about a week of practicing this new skill, you moved on to sitting up.  You literally became obsessed with sitting up.  You would try sitting up from the side-lying position. then sitting up from the other side, then sitting up from your back, then sitting up form a crawl.

Then, to top off all these new skills, the week before you turned 6 months, you woke up from a nap, and when I came to get you you were standing up!!!  Your little legs were shaking, you were clutching on to the top rail of the crib with all your might, and you had a very nervous look on your face.  It was as if you were both utterly excited and totally terrified all at the same time.  We immediately lowered your crib (after saying a prayer of thankfulness that you had not flipped yourself over the edge).

Now life is honed in on finding a suitable surface to pull yourself up on, and then 70% of the time falling over.  This stage is full of bumps and bruises and frustrations.  But it is also full of little victories.  With each new accomplishment, your toothless grin can be seen stretching broadly across your face.

Most recently you have started practicing making new noises.  One of your favorites is saying, "A-da, A-da, A-da, da, da."  We joke that your first word is sister's name.  You also love making deep vocalizations and grunts that sound like a lion or bear.  They sound very manly and warrior-ish, whatever you are trying to communicate.

You have also started joining us at the table and eating food.  Your first taste was sweet potato - which you loved.  Then we moved on to peas, which you are not as sure about.  Next we tried applesauce, and then mango puree.  So far you are a very eager eater - grabbing at everything and sitting impatiently at table until we get the food in your mouth!!

Matchy matchy with Mama

Practicing push-ups with Sister

Practicing music with Papa

Worn out after a day of exertion!

4 Months

Cuatro is 4 months old, and he is officially a giant!  At least, he's a giant compared to the Baird baby who was born Friday.  That's how it always go.  The baby is born and you are in the thick of the crying, feeding, rocking routine - weary and sleepless - and all of a sudden you wake up and the fourth trimester is over and you have a little individual in your arms.

Our little individual is often called a miniature man - he has a deep and probing way of looking at things, and then when you least expect it he breaks the solemnity with a face-wide grin.  His smile reminds me of Songbird's - broad and freely given.  He has also started laughing here and there - especially when being tickled on his tummy or cheeks.  And the boy has no lack of love - in fact, I'm pretty sure he will grow up thinking he hangs the moon with all the doting he receives from the 5 other people in his family. :)

The day he turned 4 months he started rolling over in earnest, but he did it in a non-traditional back-to-tummy sort of way.  Then he started doing it compulsively, but he didn't like being on his tummy and didn't know how to roll back over.  He still hasn't gotten the nack of rolling from tummy to back, though I think he will be doing it by the week's end.

Last weekend he experienced his first snow / ice storm and took his first walk in sub-freezing temperatures (which didn't last long because the wind was unbearably whipping in our faces).  The freezing rain started after dark on Friday and continued through the night.  When we woke on Saturday morning we were encrusted in ice.  The older children had a great time making ice skating rinks and sledding with an older neighbor up the street, while Raindrop and I huddled in the warmth of the wood stove that Papa kept well-fed and worked on painting and beading.  The ice kept the church from opening and the schools from opening, so our already long-seeming vacation kept going and going.  But the children got their snow.

Now, exactly one-week later, we are hiking the mountain and shedding our layers because it is 70 degrees outside.  I keep having to remind myself that it is still the middle of January.

The Boggs came by for a visit, and the warm was welcomed by all.  Elisha and I took a 40th birthday walk together, and the kids made fires, and whittled, and chased chickens, and felted, and cooked, and dreamed.  And our souls were fed.

Look at me!

Cuatro's first snow

Raindrop and I keeping warm with art

The freezing walk

Ice "sledding" at the end of the street.

A hike to Kennesaw Mountain with Caroline when it warmed up.

2016

Happy New Year!

We celebrated New Years' Eve with the Hutchinsons - good college friends we hadn't seen in 4 years!!  We are blessed to live only 20 minutes away from Chet's brother's current home, and so we joined their families for a hotdog bonfire.  It is a special gift to pick up where you left off with like-minded friends and to be encouraged in life and faith.  Thank you Chet and Erin!

This New Years' Day began for us as the night ended, rocking Cuatro through tears and unknown pain.  He slept most of the night in 10-minute increments, requiring constant pacy holding and soothing.  Hubry slept on the floor so that Cuatro and I could share the bed, but overall sleep was sparse for all.  I vaguely remember hearing the loud fireworks ushering in the New Year, and I quietly thought to myself, "it is here."

When the morning finally came to relieve us of our misery, it was greeted by a cold, steady rain.  Raindrop's asthma had kept her awake some of the night as well, Songbird seemed out-of-sorts, and Hubry quickly made the call that we would be staying home from church this day!  And with that began a sweet time of remembering, dreaming, planning, singing, feasting, and now...writing.

When I look back over 2016, I see many gifts and trials and accomplishments, but what stands out the most is Cuatro himself.  He was longed for, prayed after, and realized in January.  He spent the next 8 months blossoming in my womb.  He finally joined us in this pilgrim journey early September, and he finished out his "fourth trimester" just as the year came to a close.  He has added so much joy to our family, I can't imagine life without him!

This afternoon we sat around the fire, steady rain falling outside, offering up our thankfulness.  From 2016 we are thankful for:

Cuatro
The Peach Book - the culmination of 9 years of dedicated work.
Christ Community Church has been a blessing for everyone: Sunday school, Bible studies, small groups, bells and children's choir. We became members in August and have enjoyed being able to participate in a community so close to where we live.
Lots of time with cousins (at the beach, in the mountains)
A dry basement and attic. (thanks, DaddyO).
Fires. And lots of free wood, courtesy of our neighbors Nancy and Ken, cut into wood-stove sticks by Paul Wagoner's amazing hydraulic splitter
Chickens. We wanted to get out of rabbits and into chickens now that our yard is more accommodating, and what do you know? Our rabbitry friend Tom wanted our rabbits back, and gave us 10 poulet de bresse chicks in return, augmented by another friend of a friend's 5 leftover chickens. Minus 6 rooster dinners, we have 9 lovely hens who make a racket and lots of eggs.
Running - Songbird has dropped her 5k time dramatically and has been running better than she ever has. Bro continues to do well, and Raindrop ran her mile diligently with the promise of winter gymnastics in view. Kelly ran her first 5k just 6 weeks after Cuatro arrived, but opportunities have been sparse of late.

9 years in the making!

Self-portrait in the bathroom :)

And on the porch

Isn't it great to be the youngest of 4?

Songbird's artwork

BRO practicing his whittling skills

New Years' Dinner - the beautiful table brought to you by little Raindrop.

The First Weeks

Cuatro is one blessed babe to be born into such a community!  First off, he has rock-star Grandparents who lovingly stepped into our world and took over all of our driving duties so he didn't have to get carted about here and there with the older children.  BMa and Daddy-O came to stay while we were in the hospital and our first few days at home.  While they weren't driving the older children to their various activities, BMa was busy doting on the children and helping with their schoolwork and art projects, while Daddy-O went around fixing all of our broken things (mainly doors and tables).

BMa and Daddy-O left us on Thursday, and then my friend Amy came to swoop away the older children on Friday and take them to a special Homeschool Day at the History Museum.  This allowed Hubry and me to take Cuatro to his first doctor's appointment together without having to bring the other children along.  And, this allowed the older children to play with good friends and practice making new inventions (which they practiced for many days afterwards using all the contents from our recycling bin).

That first weekend home by ourselves the church provided several meals for us, which was a huge blessing, and then on Monday the children started their first day of Masters' Academy.  On Tuesday GranJan and Papa RJ came to dote on the children and take over all of our driving duties.  When they weren't driving the older children to activities, GranJan held the baby and read to the children, while Papa RJ mowed our grass and went around vacuuming up all of our messes.  Did I mention that Cuatro has rock-star grandparents? :)

We are still being provided meals from our church and help from our friends, and Hubry and I have taken many moments to reflect and marvel at the way God has specifically answered our prayers for community in this city.  When we moved to Kennesaw everything about it felt off - the University wasn't exactly the kind of place Hubry had pictured teaching, the suburban living with all of it's new cookie-cutter developments wasn't where we pictured living, and our church situation - though super encouraging - was disjointed at best as it required driving across town into the city every Sunday.   The Lord has either changed our hearts or changed our situation in each of the above complaints,  and He has provided generously for our wants as well as our needs.  Cuatro is testimony to this generosity, and we recognize fully that it is nothing short of gift!

I've got this big sister thing!

Shades of blue

Brotherly love

First day of Masters'Academy

Enjoying a soft changing pad from Lindsey

First bath, and no tears!

September 5th, 2016

The Birth Story of Cuatro
8:48 a.m., September 5, 2016

Wifey and I went to bed early on Sunday night, September 4. She had been tired and often nauseaus even in this third trimester of pregnancy, and we had hosted small group earlier that day. So I made some overnight waffle mix for our Labor Day breakfast, and we were in bed between 9 and 10 o'clock, which is early for us. At about 5 in the morning, Kelly woke me. "That was the fourth time that a hard contraction has woken me up tonight," she said. "I'm wondering if I should stay awake for a bit and time them." She went to the bathroom, and I thought, well, I might as well get ready, just in case it's time to go to the hospital. It's not that early. When she saw me getting ready, she thought, well, maybe I should start getting ready, too. This, it is good to say, was a direct answer to prayer: we had asked that God would let us know when it was time to go, that it wouldn't be too rushed. And he did!

About thirty minutes later, when our bags were pretty much packed, the contractions were literally stopping her in her tracks, and she was pretty confident that it was time. I started calling people to see who could come take care of the children. Wes had to stay with his children because his wife was going into work. Abe didn't answer his phone (we learned later he thought he'd forgotten to turn off his alarm for Labor Day). Nancy didn't answer her phone (we learned later she thought it was a telemarketer). Eric and Teresa didn't answer (we learned later they had been sick and were sleeping in for labor day.) Kelly had another very hard contraction, and we looked at each other. "We need to go," she said. She started writing a note for Songbird to read, and we left my phone by it so she could call us and us her. Some days before, Kelly had it on her heart to go over with the children what to do if they woke up and we were not there, and we had actually practiced using the phone. Another way in which the Lord prepared us for the unknown.

So by 5:45, we were on our way to the hospital, not sure who we could get to take care of the children. We checked in around 6am (another benefit to an early morning labor day delivery: no traffic), making sure that everyone knew just how fast Kelly's deliveries typically are. We got into triage and confirmed that, yes, Cuatro was definitely on his way, and they'd have us in a room shortly. 

When they entered information into the computer system in order to prepare Kelly's intravenous port, the nurse suddenly turned around. "You had an IV here a year ago today," she said. We looked at each other. What had she been in the hospital for? The dilation and curettage in the aftermath of miscarrying our fifth baby, exactly one year to the day that Cuatro would be born. We knew, of course, that Cuatro was a gracious answer to prayer after the sorrow and pain of losing that fifth child. But it seemed extravagant to have his life echo so precisely his little sibling's death. A kind of calendarial expression of Psalm 126, "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." 

While we were waiting for a room, I finally got in touch with someone: Amy, who said she was on her way. Later, she told us that when she arrived at the house, Songbird and Bro were already up and had calmly started making waffles. Songbird, as is her custom, had arisen first and, finding no adults in the house, suspected a baby -- even before seeing the note we had left for her.

Things started to be pretty difficult for Kelly around 7:30 or so, and the approach of the midwife and nursing staff was to keep very quiet and let her labor -- presumably because she had done this a few times before. But to Kelly, it felt like the longest, hardest labor yet, although it was done in less than four hours from the time that hard contraction awoke her. After much pain and pushing and more than a little screaming and weeping -- Kelly was amazing! -- we saw his scuzzy little head, and then suddenly the rest of him. 

Our first impressions: Blue. Stout. Quiet. Indeed, he was coughing up stuff he had breathed or swallowed in that delivery for the next several days, and they had to do lots of vigorous rubbing to get him to cry. And he was here! And all was well. As he's gotten older, he's stretched out a bit, and now reminds us a little of Bro's head on Songbird's body. Nursing has been a little of a struggle at times, but all things considered he has been happy and healthy and Kelly is recovering well. 

Answers to months of the faithful prayers of all his older siblings.  What do you say at the birth of your fourth child? A superabundance of offspring, an embarrassment of progeny, a loud, chaotic lifetime of feeding and cleaning and teaching and worrying and praying and laughing. Little Cuatro has a lot of hands blessing him everyday, and we're overflowing with thanksgiving.