Survival of the Fittest

To say life is completely insane right now is an understatement! I knew adding a baby to our life would make things crazier than normal, but I really didn’t anticipate it would be this hard. I just finished reading Jim Gaffigan's book "Dad Is Fat" (hilarious, by the way) and I totally relate to his description of having four kids: "Imagine you are drowning and then someone hands you a baby." Ha!

That being said, the kids are all doing well and growing and changing a ton. Max and Tyler started kindergarten and really like it. It was a big adjustment the first few weeks (for all of us), but the mornings go smoothly now and we are all in a good routine. We put them in the same class this year with intentions of splitting them up next year, but we haven't decided for sure. There are three classes for each grade level at St. Luke, so it would be no problem to have them in separate classes. They will definitely be separated eventually (I know it will be really good for them), but we haven't decided if first grade is the time to do it. To be determined! They were invited to a birthday party last weekend and talk about their new friends all the time (Lucas, Alex, and Colin especially), so I know they are enjoying it.

Maisie is hilarious and such a sweet girl. She is always telling us “I love you” and loves to snuggle. She is also very quick to apologize for anything and everything, including falling off of a chair the other day. “I SO sorry, Mama!” I told her she didn’t have to say she’s sorry for falling off of a chair J She loooooooooooves Sydney but is often a bit too “loving” with her (eg, she hugs her really tightly or bounces her too high in her bouncy chair). A few weeks ago Andy said, "I'm really going to miss two-year-old Maisie." She's one of a kind, that's for sure!

Baby Sydney is 4 1/2 months old now and changing so much. At her 4-month appointment, she weighed 14 lbs 7 oz (95%) and was 23.5 inches long (75%). Chunker! She is a really smiley baby and pretty easygoing now. She had some rough patches early on and would cry hysterically for no apparent reason. She also hated the car for a while and screamed nonstop (during two long car rides, she screamed for 35 minutes straight!). I finally discovered that white noise helped, so we now have a portable white noise machine that attaches to her car seat. She seems to have outgrown the screaming for no reason, but the white noise puts her right to sleep when she's in the car for nap time.

She started sleeping 6-7 hours at 5 weeks old (amazing, right?) but has regressed over the past month and wakes up at least two times to eat now. Last night she slept from 7:30-3:30 though, so I'm hoping we're getting back to the good sleeping. Oh yah, and did I mention she only likes to sleep in her swing? For the fourth child, she is certainly more high maintenance than you'd think :) She "talks" a ton and loves to watch her brothers and sister. Max started calling her "Sydo the Kiddo" a few months ago, which has stuck. Her other popular nicknames include "Sydo", "Syd the Kid", and "Sydo Ooney Nooney Tooney" (courtesy of Tyler... and no, I have no clue where that one came from). 

Updating this blog has been on my to-do list for months... along with a million other things that never seem to get done! I know I will never get back to updating as frequently as I did when this started, but I really do like looking back on old posts, so I'm going to try to jot down a few things every now and then. I have a feeling this time in our lives will be a big blur when we look back one day, so at least this will give us a few concrete memories :)

There are too many pics to include from the past four months, so here are some recent ones.

4 months old!

Maisie's first day of school

Tyler's and Max's first day of kindergarten

Sydney's first ND tailgate 

Trying cereal for the first time

Pretty sure she spit out every single bite 

Maisie feeding her baby. Ha!