A Family of Six

It's been 8 weeks since Miss Saleen came into our home and it's been a wonderful couple of months. We all have a routine that involves her now like she has always been with us. The thing I haven't gotten used to yet is having FOUR kids! When we run errands without Josh it is the craziest. The looks I get from people and comments we get everywhere the Ellison train goes like the "your brave," or "are these all yours?" and always "you’ve got your hands full!" I say train because that’s how I feel sometimes. I’ve got one kid in the shopping cart, one walking, and another pushing a stroller with the other kid. Sometimes I even count them all when we get in the car to make sure I have all of them. We've been trying to get out of the house so we walk to the park. Now we have one in a stroller, one on roller skates, one puling a wagon with one in the wagon attached to the dog. I'm sweaty just walking a block with this crew and yes I am counting it as exercise.

I am amazed that the newness and excitement for Seer and her baby sister hasn't worn off yet. I still have to pry her 30 pound body off from squashing Saleen while she says "ah baby" and about every 30 minutes she asks me where she is if she's napping and she is the first one she asks about when she wakes up. She is also very protective of her and will yell at anyone who tries to pick her up besides mom or dad. She has made "no, no" and "uh ah" her new favorite words.

On the 4th of July (Seer's first one where she understood the fireworks) she was frightened by the "boom booms." After some time of me holding and consoling her that everything was okay I used Saleen to help her be brave. After the loud ones would go off I took Saleen close to Seer and said "sissy sissy what's that? It's loud."  I wasn’t surprised when Seer rubbed her head and said "its otay" for the first time. Now every time she cries or squishes her she will say "ah baby its otay."

With the rain this week having all of us stuck inside has left me pretty antsy. Josh joked that I have one too many kids. It's a little much juggling two older, smart, cunning siblings, a spirited 2 year old who has a cold, a newborn, and a dog right in the middle. The easiest one is by far the newborn. Oh how I long for the days I could stick a bottle in Kaiden’s mouth and he would drift to sleep.