"That's one step for baby..."

Isobel took her first few steps this past Thursday morning. I tried, pretty unsuccessfully, to get some good video footage of this milestone in action. Here I managed to shoot a few seconds her taking just a couple little steps and of course I didn't even get her feet in the frame. Oh well.

Note that even after three children I still use that high voice that gives people a headache and makes dogs' ears prick up. My first thought was, wow, do I really sound like that?

Anyway, she's been taking as many as four steps at a time before she either falls or decides she's had enough. It must be pretty exhausting work, all this learning to walk. You would think it would help her to sleep better...

Trio of Trouble

Trio of Trouble
Originally uploaded by Ernesto and Kristen Burden.

Here are the kids yesterday after a trip to my mom's house. They both wanted to hold Isobel so before they went head to head I suggested they hold her together. 'Bel looks a little concerned, but otherwise okay. I guess there are worse things than being smothered with love.

Happy Friday everyone. It's the thirteenth...beware of kids in groups of three!

Three week update

Temperatures neared 90 degrees today and while I'm happy to enjoy some warm weather, I was not anticipating having to dig out the kids' summer clothes quite so soon. I mean, we just had a snowstorm a couple weeks ago. I thought perhaps we would ease into spring a bit more slowly. Silly me.

So we got out the water table, Mr. Crab (the sandbox) and scrounged around for some sunblock. I felt very much like I was still pregnant, carrying Isobel around in the Snugli all day. It's funny to think how much I was looking forward to her being born so I wouldn't be all huge and weighted down with her and yet here I am, still walking funny with her fused to my midsection. Except now I also have to feed her and change her diapers. Oh, and apparently she gets gas when I eat chocolate, so I guess that's out. Pregnancy isn't looking so bad right now.

But seriously, she is a little sweetheart and she really is adored by her big brother and sister. David is always in her face, talking baby talk to her and patting her "chubby cheeks". I warned him to give her a little space, but he's only happy if his nose is touching hers and today he got a little too close and she spit up right in his face. He was horrified and ran out of the room exclaiming, "Ewww!!!" while making gagging sounds. Of course he was right back at it a few hours later, so I guess it hadn't bothered him all that much.

I'm finding having three young ones at home is definitely different. Mostly I'm just finding it difficult to get the usual tasks accomplished because I'm holding the baby so often. Although today I discovered I can feed the baby and microwave some EasyMac at the same time. Look, I'm not proud of that but it's all about multi-tasking right now. My plan each day is to ask myself, "what needs to get done today and what can wait?" Obviously, needs of the kids and myself come first. They need to eat and at some point during the week I need to shower. Today it was laundry. Had to get done, but didn't necessarily need to come out of the dryer. The house was pretty much a wreck all day, but I did manage to make my bed, so my room looked pretty clean and hey, we were outside all day anyway, so who cares? The kids and the baby sure don't, so why should I?

So three weeks have gone by with three kids, and so far, so good. hectic at times, calm at others, but overall, just glad to be taking care of this little brood of mine. Wouldn't trade this life for all the chocolate in the world.