finley is 5 months old!!!

not too much has changed in the past month. finley is still one of the best babies i have ever known and i am ever thankful that God has blessed me to be her mother. now i am quadruply blessed with wonderfully delightful babies.

in the past week or so finley has decided that she would rather sleep on her belly than on her back. a task that i find remarkable seeing how she still enjoys to be swaddled. now, she busts her little arms out and rolls over.

to the dismay of many...*cough* cough*...our mothers...*cough* cough*...finley is still exclusively breastfed. the real reason is that she has very little interest in eating anything else. nana has given her cool whip and sweet potatoes and she loved them (who wouldn't? i mean it is almost entirely sugar). but almost all other food she not only lacks interest in but actually protests. but, much to her dismay, she will have to start food by next month so i am going to try with a little more enthusiasm this month.

oliver jack was impossible to satisfy with food and now finley is completely satisfied with just milk.

our schedule

5:30 - calvary comes to our room and tells us that jack is awake and jack comes to our room

6:30 - we wake up finley and i feed her

6:45 - kyle gets up and makes breakfast for everyone

6:50 - i finish feeding finley and get up and get harper dressed

7:00 - we make harper's lunch, change diapers, and put shoes on everyone else

7;20 - we leave for harper's school

7:50 - we drop harper off

8:30 - we get home and put finley to bed

8:40 - i get calvary and oliver jack dressed

8:45 - calvary and oliver jack watch half of curious george and all of cat in the hat while i drink a cup of coffee and check email, facebook, and blogs

ohmyword it is not even 9:00??????

9:30 - i get calvary and oliver jack a snack and we start school

10:30 - i wake finley up and feed her

11:00 - we go outside and play

11:30 - i come in and start lunch

12:00 -oliver jack and calvary eat and finley goes down for a nap

12:15 - oliver jack goes down for a nap

12:15 -2:00 - calvary and i have time for just us...we play together, sometimes he plays by himself, sometimes he plays a computer game...whatever it is, we enjoy this time just me and him.

2:00 - i wake up finley and feed her

2:20 - i wake up oliver jack

2:30 - we leave to go pick up harper

2:50 - we pick up harper

3:30 - we get home and i get the kids a snack

4:00- i put finley in the bed and harper starts homework

4:30 - YAY KYLE GETS HOME!!!

5:00- i feed finley

5:30 ish - we eat dinner

6:30- we play, have baths, go to ballet, shopping, yadda yadda yadda
7:00- finley goes to bed if we are at home

7:30- oliver jack goes to bed

8:00- harper and calvary go to bed and i wake up finley and feed her

8:30 -finley goes to bed

sigh...i sit.

of course chunks of the day change when we have calvary's OT or any other appointment. and of course there are the days that we visit with friends or family or head out to the library. but for the most part, this is what my days look like. i am so thankful that finley and oliver jack are so easy when it comes to adjusting their schedules. life with many little ones is always busy. i look back at the times when i only had 1 or 2 and i wonder what my life would have been like if kyle and i stuck with the choice we had made to not have any more. the truth is, that life is busy but very manageable.

i am most likely going to look back on this in another 5 months and realize that i am insane. now, when i take all of the kids into a store i look crazy but they are (for the most part) delightfully confined. one day, oliver jack will be insistent on walking, finley will be reaching and trying to grab everything, and harper and calvary will still be walking to and fro.

i think the hardest thing to manage with 4 children is the noise. it seems that the volume is ALWAYS out of control. to the point where most days i do not even notice while other days it is all i seem to notice.

but even now, while i type this, finley is sleeping...jack is laughing at charlie brown while laying against kyle's lap...harper is snuggled up in my blanket...calvary is perched in "his spot"...and kyle is sipping on his energy drink trying to make it through the next half hour :)...all is calm and quiet and i am overwhelmed with thankfulness.