Rascal

Our baby is a rascal.  Sometimes we call him the Wild Baby of M-town.  I'm sure I loved all of my babies this much when they were this age, but there's something about a third baby that already seems so abundant (a boy and a girl and, wait, another boy!) and the fact that he's the third means that we realize how quickly he'll be out of this sweet, funny, rascally age.

Just enjoying a bit of meat at Steve's client's Eid celebration earlier in the month.

This baby pudges around the backyard doing all kinds of important work.  He begs to go 'ide and I just slide the screen door open for him and he lets himself down off the deck and patters around in the grass, lining up rocks and filling up buckets.  I peek out the door and he's in the sandbox working on a project or busy at the water table.  Earlier this week, I looked out and shouted because he'd climbed all the way to the top of the kids' play structure.  He'd figured out the rock climbing wall and let himself into the little fort.  When I tried to coax him over to me to get him down, he was too pleased with himself, peeking between the wooden slats and calling out, "Hiyo!  Hiyo!" to the kids on the swings down below him.

Driving his car at the neighbor's house.

He loves books with animal pictures.  He flops himself down on my lap several times a day with a book in hand so that we can look at 'puppies' (all animals) or 'now' (the sound a cat makes).  If his brother and sister are with me on the couch, he shoves right by them and pushes and fusses until he can settle himself right down in the middle, on my lap.

He does tricks - Patty Cake and So Big and Where are Your Teeth?  He sits for long periods of time ringing the doorbell on the dollhouse or snuggling a stuffed animal or rifling through my drawers.  When he wants something he knows he shouldn't have, he runs with it and when we get close enough to take it, he throws it.  He and his sister and I made cookies this week and he stood at the table hurling the cookie cutters across the table as his contribution.  While I was picking green beans recently, he helped.  As I picked, I would hand him a few of the beans and he'd walk them to the end of the row and deposit them in the bowl.  Adorable.

He spends a lot of time with "E-ah" now that The Bairn is in school.

His favorite activity is brushing his teeth.  We had a stool right next to the vanity in the bathroom and every day someone would forget to close the bathroom door (to keep Nate out).  I'd walk in and find him standing on the stool brushing his teeth (usually with someone else's toothbrush).  "What are you doing, " I'd ask and he'd answer "Deet." (Teeth.)  Today I found him sitting on the stairs with The Bairn.  He was very happily letting his brother brush his teeth.

One-Year-Old Boy

Natey's birthday was at the end of April.  His brother and sister were very excited for him.  The Bairn spent a lot of time thinking about possible cakes for him and woke up early for days before the birthday, because he was so excited about the day.  He (The Bairn) was disappointed that there were no decorations on the actual birthday and when I told him I had streamers if he wanted to put them up, he said, "Yes, let's put a streamer outside the house that says: The [Family] house - it's run down but, still, it's home."

On the big day, we took the whole family, including Grammie and Papa, to the children's museum in Halifax and, then, my favorite part, we grabbed lunch at the big seaport farmers market just down the road.  The Bairn ate a giant pretzel, so we spent the next two weeks fashioning giant pretzels at home. ( Ellen was insistent on making teeny tiny pretzels and also making large, strangely shaped creations with her dough.)

I made a sad-looking bunny cake and we fed the birthday boy his favorite meal: spaghetti and peas.

Little Natey is so small and cute.  He kisses on request but generally turns his head away when the other kids try to kiss him.  He loves to 'beep' our noses  while triumphantly announcing, "Bup!  Bup!"  He's recently figured out how to climb up on the kids' chairs, but he can't get down, so I often finding him standing on a chair in the middle of The Bairn's room hollering.  He is a master mess maker and also excellent at snuggling.  We love to hear his little feet pattering around the house.

11-Months-Old!

Baby Boy is 11-months-old.  He seems more like a baby to me than the other two did at this age, probably because he has an older brother and sister.

At 11 months, his favorite activities are

Climbing the stairs.  Any time the gate at the bottom of the stairs is left open, Natey heads straight for it with great purpose and starts his climb to the 2nd floor.

Throwing things into other things.  We were in a hotel in Nashville last month and before I left the room each day I checked the garbage cans, because Nate spent all his time filling them with shoes and socks and whatever he could get his hands on.  He especially loves throwing rolls of toilet paper into the toilet and cars and trucks into Ellen's little potty.

Brushing his teeth.  His favorite toy is a toothbrush that he walks around with and bites.

Riding in the backpack.  He's been sick and teething lately and the only thing that really satisfies him is to ride on my back in the backpack most of the day.

Taking baths.

The older kids still adore him and love to play with him, although I often have to shoo them away because they get a bit rough and want to tie him up and drag him around.

Don't be fooled.  He's never ever slept in this crib, but he likes to play in it and throw things out of it onto the floor.

He was actually enjoying wearing these goggles until the kids insisted on taking a photo with him wearing them and then he quickly had enough of it.  This is probably a good representation of his life at 11-months-old, though.  He's deeply loved but sometimes it annoys him.

10-Months-Old

My baby turns 10-months-old this week.

He loves

• playing ball.  Aunt Jean gave him a little baby-sized ball and he's actually very good at sitting on the floor with me or The Bairn and throwing it back and forth.  He's very pleased with himself about it too.
• blueberries, peaches, and sweet potato pancakes.  All of those foods make him kick his feet and scream for more.  (He hasn't quite embraced sign language yet.)
• opening cupboards and drawers and rifling through the contents.  He pulls open my bottom filing drawer and attempts to rearrange my files every single day.
• being tickled.  The kids like to take turns tickling him, because he gives such satisfying little laughs and giggles.  It actual sounds like he's saying, "Hee hee."
• walking around like a boss.  He started walking about 3 weeks ago and it's darling.  

I just love snuggling him up during naps and rocking him is one of my favorite parts of the day.

6 1/2 Months Old

Natey is 6 1/2 months old. He crawls, sometimes on his hands and feet instead of on his hands and knees. I love looking up from the sink and seeing him working his way across the kitchen floor.  He loves tearing paper and trying to eat choking hazards he finds on the floor.

He is his mama's boy and immediately protests if I leave the room.  He shakes his head 'no,' which sends the other kids into hysterics and he likes to stick out his tongue.  He's found his voice and spends quite a bit of time babbling and shouting.

We love him.

5 1/2 Months Old

My little sweetie boy is at my very favorite baby age.  I can't get enough of him.  He's very round and dimply.  He spends a lot of time on his hands and knees but hasn't figured out crawling yet.  He's become an awful nighttime sleeper.  I don't know if it's because he's teething or is prone to terrible diaper rashes or if he's just not interested in sleeping at night (like a certain Bairn I know).

I recently started feeding him solids, maybe partially because he looks so cute peeking around in a high chair.  He loves everything I've given him--bananas and peaches and yogurt mostly.  He also enjoys gagging himself with a baby spoon.

Here he is looking extra precious in a hat.

Snuggling his mama on Canadian Thanksgiving.

I left him alone with the bigger kids for one minute . . .

Maybe a silicone hat isn't so bad after all.

4.5 Months Old

Baby Natey is 4 1/2 months old. He can roll and scoot backwards and get up on his knees (while face planting).  I love to put him in fuzzy pajamas and pretend he is a teddy bear, because he's so soft and sweet and has extra fat thighs that make me want to eat him up.

His favorite things are milk, his brother, and his sister.  The Bairn makes him laugh and laugh, often by doing dangerous things like lifting him off the bed and then letting him fall back down.  His least favorite thing is teething, but he still does it like a pro.  I expect a tooth from him any day now.

We love love love him.

Here he is admiring The Bairn, which takes up a lot of his time each day.

Here he is investigating a baby doll before tasting her.

Three Months Old

Our baby boy is three months old.  Almost 3 1/2.  When you're number three and it's canning season (zucchini pineapple and raspberry jam this past week!) and your mama is helping run a small business (I started this post an hour ago and then got distracted writing a job description for the new employee and sending out an invoice), sometimes it takes a bit longer than it should to get your own special monthly post up.

Anyway, Natey is our doll baby.

He's getting very tall and he's passing that Winston Churchill phase and starting to look like his own sweet self.

Here he is working on escaping off this blanket.

He can roll from his tummy to his back and scoots himself off his blanket during tummy time somehow.

He doesn't really care for the sling and he's not a fan of daytrips, so life's rough for him, but he's very good-natured anyway.

Sometimes we call him Franklin because he looks a bit like a baby turtle without his shell.

He absolutely adores the older kids and may love The Bairn more than anyone else in the family.  He absolutely lights up for his brother.

He laughs when we tickle him or say silly things to him.

He freezes when I pull out the camera, but, look! baby shorts.

We love him so.  My favorite part of the day is when all three kids snuggle up in bed first thing in the morning with me and Steve and sing Natey songs and ask him questions while he yawns and laughs.

Kids of Summer

This one gives great big smiles, but he's shy for the camera.  (Also, he hates the outdoors, making his life very difficult this summer.  He's happiest lying on my bed in the air conditioning.)

One day I left him in his carrier when we came home from an outing and while I was unpacking the car, the bigger kids gave him some toys.  Ellen is fanatical about ensuring that he always gets his time with that monkey.

A boy in a strawberry cut-out wearing his cousin Tooie's shirt.

Hiking.  The Bairn loves it.  Ellen asks if it's over yet so she can eat a picnic.

But she enjoys the sights along the way.

The Bairn was determined to catch a fish at this nature playground, but all either of the kids got was a water skeeter.

The mud kitchen made up for the lack of fish.

Saturday was a family reunion.  The kids were thrilled by the potluck dessert selection and the abundant juice selection that elderly relatives kept offering them.  I cut Ellen off after 2 cupcakes and 2 juice boxes but she still threw up all over my lap (and on the baby brother sitting there).

We've had a new baby for every family reunion we've attended.  It makes us very popular with the older generations.

Ellen and a distant cousin (they have the same great-great-grandfather).  When I ask Ellen to smile, she makes fake dimples in her cheeks with her fingers.  I don't know why.  She has real ones.

Baby Dear

Brothers chatting (right before The Bairn bopped Nate on the head with that pipe cleaner and then made him wear it as a mustache).

I was talking to the baby the other night and suddenly remembered this poem that my mom used to quote when speaking to infants.  Steve found some of the lines a bit much (he doesn't think Natey's cheek is like a warm white rose), but I like it.  There's something nice about the thought that people have always spoken to their babies this way and felt they were a gift.  I especially like the last line.  

Where Did You Come From, Baby Dear?

by George MacDonald

Where did you come from, baby dear?

Out of the everywhere into here.

Where did you get your eyes so blue?

Out of the sky as I came through.

What makes the light in them sparkle and spin?

Some of the starry spikes left in.

Where did you get that little tear?

I found it waiting when I got here.

What makes your forehead so smooth and high?

A soft hand stroked it as I went by.

What makes your cheek like a warm white rose?

I saw something better than anyone knows.

Whence that three-cornered smile of bliss?

Three angels gave me at once a kiss.

Where did you get this pearly ear?

God spoke, and it came out to hear.

Where did you get those arms and hands?

Love made itself into hooks and bands.

Feet, whence did you come, you darling things?

From the same box as the cherubs' wings.

How did they all just come to be you?

God thought about me, and so I grew.

But how did you come to us, you dear?

God thought about you, and so I am here.

What We're Doing

Note: I think we'll call this new baby Nate on the blog.

So this is what's been going on with three kids.

Steve got his ham radio license.  He's absolutely evangelical about ham radio.  He and the kids listen to the wake-up net every morning.  To me, it sounds like eavesdropping on an old folks home, but Steve likes it.

Nate turned one month old.  He's usually very content.  Except when he's not.

He likes to make his lips really small.  He's also, surprisingly, good at standing on our laps and taking a pacifier.  He's getting adorable fat rolls already.  He hates baths and I mostly forget to give them to him, so he smells a bit like cheese.

We've been getting out of the house more the last two weeks, which makes everyone happier, but doesn't stop Ellen's truly impressive screaming and whining.

Today we had a picnic at this park.

I promised the kids we'd come back with Steve so they could spend way more time chucking rocks into the water and running back and forth across the bridge.  Welcome, welcome, summertime.

Brothers

 The Bairn is really enamored with his brother.  Every day he asks me if he can have a baby visit.  Baby visits involve sitting next to his brother and requesting stories from the fascinating life of a newborn.  The Bairn is especially tickled if the baby asks him questions.  They also sometimes do exercises together.  The baby leads and The Bairn copies all the stretches and yawns and raised fists.

The Bairn is also enamored with my camera.  He usually gets his grubby paws on it every couple of days and takes close ups of our shoe rack or the piano, but yesterday he actually got this pretty fabulous photo of the newbie.

Hey, Look, a Baby

I had a baby on Friday.  I woke Steve up at 3:00 am and made him go to the hospital even though my labor wasn't very advanced because I kept hearing terrifying stories about 3rd babies being born so quickly that they were practically delivered in the car.  We could have stayed home longer.

I did not like the doctor who delivered the baby, but the nurse was a childhood friend of Steve's who he had not seen in 30 years and she was amazing.  I imagine that having her for a nurse was like having a doula.  She gave great back rubs and murmured reassuring mantras and advocated for me with the doctor and other nurses to keep them from using interventions that I didn't want.

I stayed in the hospital overnight, but I should have taken the 2 night option that I was offered.  If there is a next time, future self take note: stay in the hospital with the pain killers and meals on order for one more day.

Steve's parents had already been staying with us for about a week, because I had several rounds of false labor and because the baby was 5 days overdue, when we went to the hospital.  My parents arrived in town about 6 hours after I gave birth.

Steve and my parents and my in-laws brought the kids to the hospital to meet their new brother.  The Bairn told the baby jokes and The Bairn and Ellen both made me toast in the family kitchen.

We brought the baby home Saturday afternoon and held a tiny birthday party for him on Sunday and have introduced him to the noisy life of a third child.  Today he was super fussy, so I put him in the sling for the first time and The Bairn asked, "Why did you put your baby back inside?"