The Littlest Cutie of the Hodge-Podge Household (Part 6)

It's been a busy month, and it only promises to continue this way for the next few weeks years. When will the baby be in kindergarten? Oh yeah, it will be awhile. Sometimes in my tiredness, I feel like hurrying this whole process of seeing my kids get to an age where they are a little more self-sufficient. But then in my tiredness and in my hurry I would unfortunately gloss over those special moments of their babyhood and toddlerhood.

Our littlest member of the Hodge-Podge household is now almost 6 months old. You saw that right! I can't believe this child has been with us for 1/2 of a year. Time really does fly. Our little Kaylee Joy is simply a real treasure. She is very pleasant and sweet. She has just charmed everyone in the family, especially her Pap-Pap John.

It was not a fun pregnancy. I was big huge, at least I felt huge. Made even worse by donning a maternity bathing suit throughout the summer to take the kids to the pool. The only way to hide myself was to park myself in the water down at the 3 foot end and stand there so only the top part of me showed. The tough part was getting back out of the pool. Heave-ho! (It didn't help always seeing someone I knew everytime we went.)

Not about to choose getting cut again, I opted to have a VBAC, and we are so thankful that everything went as planned. I could actually say that most of my labor with Kaylee I had fun. I mean after all, my mom was watching the kids, and I got to spend some time with Carl. Yes, my wonderful, hard-working husband actually did take the day off. I packed him a big lunch before we left for the hospital. Good thing. I snuck bites of his lunch everytime the nurse left the room on and off throughout my labor. Why starve a laboring woman? So I paced and munched while finishing a Karen Kingsbury novel. Just what I needed to keep me occupied.

I was good to go until the doc broke my water. Good thing I had already finished my book. Time to get serious with huffing and puffing and all that! Just about the time I decided I couldn't take it anymore, I whispered to Carl to ask about that epidural. Too late, it was already time to push. Just let me tell you that I didn't appreciate the cheering section as I was pushing. Something in me, I don't know where it came from, yelled "no" for the entire pushing stage. Afterwards for some strange reason I felt compelled to confess to the doctor my sin of sneaking food. He's probably hoping she's my last baby. I swear they were going to put a sign on the door "Fussy Patient".

Every bit of that enduring pregnancy was worth it. Kaylee Joy is such a joy, and so loved upon. She receives about one hundred kisses each day from her siblings. They are just crazy about her. The first place the kids go in the morning is straight to my room to peek into her bassinet to say "good morning" to her. They all use this funny little high-pitched voice to speak to her, which just cracks me up! They rush in the door after school and line up to take turns holding her. She is so patient with it all, letting them hold her, smiling for each one in turn. Just the other day she rolled over. We all cheered for her accomplishment!

I think I'm the luckiest Mom alive to have 5 wonderful, beautiful, healthy children. They are the delight of my life. I love watching them love on the baby. Watching Brianna (10), my big girl, "mother" her baby sister. Watching Jeremy (9) try to tape a crooked diaper on her all on his own "cause she was crying, Mom". Listening to Travis (6) dance in front of her and say "boo" 20 times in a row because he gets KK to laugh everytime. Being patient when Corey (4) wants to put jelly kisses on her head while I nurse her. She usually leans back and looks up at him with this "what are you doing to me now?" expression. He has taken to calling her "Kake" lately!

These are the sweet moments to tuck away in my heart and hold onto forever. It's so true, they don't stay small forever. Life is flying by, and I don't want to spend it all blogging. But I hope to do better in March than I did in February.

P.S. Since this was posted, I noticed that Kaylee popped her first tooth on Saturday morning. The milestones keep flying by!