She..

...sounds like a kitten mewing when she cries.

...grins when she sees or hears her mommy or daddy come into her field of vision.

...will sit for long periods of time (30-40 minutes) happily listening to her sisters sing to her or read her books.

...loves to snuggle.

...loves to be swaddled tight.

...goes to bed around 7:30.

...sleeps a 7 hour and a 3 hour stretch at night.

...falls asleep almost instantly if you snuggle her tight against your chest and breathe into her hair with your lips pressed against her forehead.

...is such a treat for her mommy.

Having one baby has been extraordinary. I feel like she is mine.. all mine. I can hold her as much as I want too. Put her down to nap when I want too. Feed her when I want too. Cuddle her when I want too. Rock her as long as I want too. Sing to her as much as I want too. I get to give her all my attention when I am focusing on her. She is so easy going it is pretty easy to balance taking care of her with taking care of her wild and crazy fun sisters. I always felt like the twins were a project when they were babies. I loved being with them and holding them, but we had to schedule them so carefully and be so strict to survive those first months that I felt like I missed getting all the snuggles and babying them. My only real snuggle time was when I helped them sleep at nap time and that was super sweet. Having one has just been.. so different in the best sense possible.

Monday

Today, Frances went to the pool with us for the first time in her short life. She didn't get into the water but she sported a cute little suit anyway. She is so girly. She is a quick smiler so this is about as good as it get for capturing that sweet little look.



The best picture of the day taken by our friend Kathy. That magnificent man slid down the water slide umpteen times and every time he managed to keep those little girls just enough out of the water to keep them from being scared. Such an amazing daddy.



Ada was more into taking deeper plunges than Margot but that is just the way she is.. Ada is a bit of a risk taker. She is our free spirit. She wouldn't make it without Margot to keep her on her toes. Today they got into a little yelling match because Margot was playing in their little kitchen and Ada came along and dumped a bunch of the fruits and veg on the floor and started kicking them around like tiny soccer balls. Margot yelled at her for "making a mess" and Ada just grinned and continued to push Margot's buttons. After asking Ada to find something else to play with ("Ok Mama! {big tight hug around my leg...love that girl}) Stephen made some comment about wanting to keep them in the same room as long as possible. I said I thought they would always share a room and he responded that Ada might drive Margot crazy not cleaning up after herself. I laughed imagining that fight being played out by our future hard headed teens. We decided by then they would be used to each other's habits and besides.. Ada will probably just let Margot clean up the room for her! Funny how when it is time to put away toys Ada is always the first to start while day dreaming Margot fiddles with something on the other end of the room.

My favorite Margot comment of the day came on our way home from the pool today. I heard Margot instructing Ada that she needed to sleep in her big girl bed(Ah-da! You need sleep in your big girl bed!!), over and over and over. Finally I turned around to see what was going on and there was Ada drifting off to sleep in her car seat as we raced home for nap time. I tickled Ada awake while Margot sang what she considered an appropriate wakeful song - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - to keep Ada awake until we got home. At one point I noticed the singing had died out and sure enough, Margot had put herself to sleep with her own singing! Ada and I giggled Margot back awake (she shot us both a sheepish grin when she opened her sleepy eyes). It has been a good day.

In no particular order..

These are some of my favorite photos from the last few weeks. Weeks that saw us home instead of in the hospital. I am not even going to attempt to "catch up" from where I left off.. instead I will start from now. There.. I feel the self imposed blogger guilt lifting already.

Our recent days have been easy.. and hard.. full of fun and an extreme desire to get into the car and drive away at top speed without looking back. The ups and downs of parenting, postpartum recovery, and raising (almost) 3 year olds.

Frances has reflux issues so I have cut dairy, soy, and caffeine from my diet. No, almond milk is not as good as cold glass of skim, but a baby who eats a full feeding and doesn't arch her back and scream in agony sure is nice. It has made all the difference and I plan to keep it up as long as it helps.

And now for a few pictures..



A&M decorated a pony shaped birthday cake for they good buddy Tay-Tay.



Desperate for the great outdoors, Stephen took them camping in the living room.






We have played a lot of hide and seek. Margot believes that if any part of her is under something.. she is completely invisible. Yes, she is hiding under the door mat.



These girls absolutely adore.. and I mean adore with a capital A, their little Frankipot. That is her nick name at the moment. Frances Pauline - Franky P - Frank-i-potomus - Frankipot. These are the things Stephen and I did to keep our sanity during the long days in the hospital. Make up nonsensical names for our 3rd born.






Oliver turned 7 earlier this month. Can you believe it?! We can't either. I do sometimes long for the days when he was an only child.



Margot, artiste in residence.



Sweet Ada Grey who looooooooves her "Frank-e-pot". Yesterday she showed Franky how to bat at the toys dangling in front of her on her bouncy seat. Franky was eager to please, wrangling her tiny limbs into submission and actually hitting the butterfly a couple of times. Ada praised her efforts and she smiled a toothless grin.

The girls also gave up their "dat-dat"s about a week ago. Yes, their sleeping has been a nightmare ever since. We are having to retrain them entirely it seems. We are exhausted, sleep deprived, second guessing our parenting strategies and ideas.. the usual stuff right? I have a feeling since they were once amazing sleepers, that they will eventually return to being amazing sleepers. After all they were once incredible eaters.. then they were super duper picky.. now they will eat whatever we ask them too again. Sleeping has got to be the same cycle sort of thing right? Don't even tell me if you think I am wrong, I don't think I can handle it. Isn't it funny though, no matter how hard things get, or how frustrated you become.. there are still those moments of full on belly laughs. Like tonight when Margot was carrying her bowl of spaghetti to the sink after dinner and dropped in all right on the floor.. and Ada was right behind her and did the exact same thing just as Stephen bent down to clean up the first mess. It was like a paper towel commercial I swear! We both laughed so hard. It's true that being a parent is the hardest and the most rewarding job you will ever do. So cliche.. but so true.