Now We Are Six

The day we left our house for China there were swallows flying around our front porch. By the time we got back there was a nest with eggs and a mom and dad swallow diving at us every time we went out of the house. Soon there were 4 little baby birds and a momma and a daddy bird. That little nest got really crowded, mom and dad swallow would sleep perched on the brick at night. I was really impressed when they taught them to fly all at the same time on the same day. One morning we woke up and they were all gone.
The momma either has baby blues or she decided she wanted more babies. She is still sitting on the nest.

I get asked all the time how is the transition to 4 kids.A lot of people have 4 kids, mine just happen to be all the same age- a really young age. It isn't really too bad. The transition of having another baby was harder than having another 3 year old. It is strange to be considered a HUGE family now. We didn't get much notice with just the two we had 6 months ago. Now we get a lot of stares and "whoa, look at all those kids!" Brent gets patted on the back I get told I am super mom. Weird. I realized recently we are now one of "those" families that people don't want to invite over to their house because we have too many mouths to feed. The other day someone came over to my house - didn't know her, she was picking something up I was giving away on freecycle. Anyway, she walked into our house and said, "Oh, are you watching someone's kids?" Uh, no they are all mine. Reminds my of my favorite quote from Cheaper By the Dozen, someone asked the dad "are these all yours or is is a picnic?" He said, "Sir, they are all mine, and it is no picnic!" :-)

Seriously, we have a lot of fun, being one of nine siblings myself I don't consider ours a huge family.

The only real problem I face is getting out and going to the store. Amy and Lucy don't walk, Angie walks slow, So they need to all get in the shopping cart which is tricky. No stores make carts for 4 little ones. Now when I have to go shopping I usually talk myself out of it until Brent can come home and help me. I had to go to Hobby Lobby yesterday. Those carts aren't even big enough to put a car seat in. I put Lucy in an umbrella stroller, and had the other girls walk. All my 3 year olds held hands and we all crossed the street. I thought that was a pretty good plan except Amy didn' t feel like walking and was getting farther and farther behind. So I asked Karianne to push Lucy's stroller and I scooped up Amy and put her and Angie in one of the little carts. Got a lot of stares, and I felt like some child labor master making my little 3 year old push a stroller that she could barely see over. I felt like saying to the lookers, "and what do you propose I do??"

By the Way, I get to be a REAL super mom next week. Brent is taking a group of kids to church camp next week... all week... not coming home until friday. I'll let you know how long I can go without shopping. :-)