month two: in review

As I suspected, time is clipping right by. And something I've noticed is that time seems to go much faster when you have a new baby - because you can see just how quickly they change.

Henry is doing things today that he wasn't doing last month.

In fact, Henry is doing things today that he wasn't doing yesterday.

He is drooling up a storm which I know is the beginning of teeth. He is smiling and laughing and his eyes light up whenever he sees me.

He coos and cahs and is kicking his legs like mad. His arms are moving in every which direction and he'll sometimes punch himself in the face with his little clenched fists.

Then he'll look startled as if to say "Who DID that?!"

Within the past 24 hours, he has started to shove his fist in to his mouth. Perhaps he recognizes it as the thing that keeps knocking him in the head?

He is an incredibly relaxed and content baby. He rarely makes a peep.

Come to think of it, the only time I ever hear him cry is when his siblings are either asleep or outside playing. It could be that he makes a lot of noise but I never hear it over our other boisterous children.

Every time I pick him up, I inhale the beautiful aroma of his newborn head, kiss his getting fatter by the day cheeks, and hold him tight.

I am savoring every bit of my baby.

Nursing is no longer excruciating. I'm very glad that I stuck with it because I knew that there was nothing wrong with his latch, and eventually it would get better.

Thankfully, it finally did.

I have noticed that Henry is sleeping longer stretches at night and nursing less when he does wake up. The reason I know this is because when I wake up in the morning, it feels like I'm laying on top of cobbles.

I still have a few months off of work before I am due to return to my part-time status.

I'm tossing around the idea of extending my leave for a year - like I did with our triplets - because this first year goes so fast, I really don't want to miss a thing.

Since I'll be home, Charlie will be returning to work full-time, next week. Today, however, he had an important business meeting three hours north, so he left the house at 7 AM.

It is now 3:00 PM and I've been home with the kids for the past eight hours. One month ago, the thought of being home with all four children by myself for an entire day, made me lightheaded.

But so far, things are going great. Right after breakfast, I loaded Henry in the stroller, fished out our three safety harnesses, tethered everyone together, and took off for a walk.

I was extremely apprehensive how the children would do walking with their harnesses. But instead of falling all over themselves, like the last time I used them, they all started neighing like horses.

Oh, how I love an imagination.

Keeping with the horse theme, we "trotted" to the park where I let my horses off to play before having a quick snack, and then we "trotted" home where I fed my horses some oats - in the form of granola.

My horses also had some grapes, apples, graham crackers and yogurt. And then, I put my horses down for a nap.

All in separate rooms of course ... because when in a big bed, my horses morphed in to monkeys that re-enacted a particular book about primates who ignore their mother, jump, fall down and result in several calls to the doctor.

I've learned that taking care of four children under the age of three is doable and I'm actually starting to believe that I might be able to pull this off without completely falling apart.

Even William seems to think so.