January Recap

     In an effort to catch up, I am trying to do a quick recap on the last three months (now make that five months). So, January....um, I had a baby and ? Everything after that is a little bit of a hazy blur.  

        Elliot was born on a Thursday night and my parents kept the big kids until Sunday.  We picked them up Sunday afternoon, excited to be together as a family and start this adventure of four kids.  That night was relatively calm.  We watched a movie together and the kids (especially Abby) loved having Elliot to hold and snuggle with).   All the below pictures were taken that Sunday night.  

It's so crazy how your baby literally becomes a big kid over night when a new child is added to the family.

 There's something about kids in jammies...

 Which one of these things is not like the others?

      Although exhausted, we were ready to settle in and just enjoy as much downtime as possible with four children and Mike's one month paternity leave.   Yes, a month!  Pretty crazy.  We've never had that before with the other kids  It's definitely a perk of working for Microsoft.
      Two nights later, Mason woke up throwing up.  And that was the start of the stomach flu making it's way through everyone in the family except Elliot and I.  Carson also caught a cold and so I basically quarantined  myself to the bedroom with the baby while Mike took care of the other sick kids (except for the day that he caught it).  As a side note, why oh why do children always start to throw up in the middle of the night?   Poor Mason got it the first and the worst.  Carson ended the cycle and the day he stayed home from school sick I got mastitis.  Which I have never had before and pretty much left me feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  So, two weeks into little Elliot's life I felt worse than right after delivery.

     Luckily, this little peanut never got sick which was a huge, huge blessing.  And although the stomach flu was no fun, it was mostly the 24 hour kind so I think we fared much better than others this winter.  Still, it was not quite the family together time I had imagined.  It was more like, "Don't touch or get too close to the baby!"

      There were sweet moments too though.  When Abby was well, she could not get enough of Elliot.  She was (and still is) such a helper with him.  She loves to hold him, choose his clothes, and help give him baths.  Those first few weeks she could hardly stay away from him.

Abby was star student.  They are allowed to bring in one object from home.  She of course chose Rebecca and they went in their matching outfits.  

A happy Mason.  January was a little bit of a tough month for him.  Although considering he started it with his second ear infection in a month, ended it with the stomach flu and lost his spot as baby of the family, it's no wonder he had some grumpy days.  Luckily, Mike was off work and my mom invited him over for several "Nana playdates" which helped everyone out a lot.