Sweet Carolinas

Since Baby SS was born we have had many helping hands on deck.  We figure if we can't take care of 3 children with more adults than children in the house, then we're in big trouble.  So far so good.  So as not to let a week go by where I might actually be alone with the aforementioned 3 children, we followed the helping hands to the sunny, sandy shores of South Carolina.

I do love this place.  Life mimics the tides - out they go for a bit and in they come for another bit - at a different time each day and nobody seems to care.  We usually don't ask the "what time is it anyway?" question until around 3:30 or 4 each day.  By that point we have hopefully put at least one of our children down for a nap.  But, sometimes we haven't and so we do so then.  I love the beach and I love summer.  And, I love helping hands.  Many, many of them.  Grandmas, aunties, uncles, Lola Fely, and dear friends.  Thank you!

On another note, I needed to capture the few cute things that my kids have said since Baby S was born:

* Upon my arrival home from the hospital, my sweet, sensitive Mr. A, asks, "Mom, if Baby S came out of your belly, how come it's still big?"  Believe me, I've often wondered that myself.  If only it weren't so.

* Miss M's favorite request after Baby S was born: "Hold me baby, Mommy!  I hold me baby!!!"  She truly believes that Baby S is her own personal baby doll and when she is done holding her she just rolls her right off her lap!  "All done!"  And there is not a moment to spare in the attempts to rescue Baby S from the fall.

Baby S is a dream child.  She quickly figured out her nights and days and after going to sleep for the last time around 11-ish each night, she wakes between 3:30-4:30 to eat and goes right back to sleep until somewhere between 7:30 and 9.  Love her.  When we went for her weight check at her almost 2 week mark she had climbed up to 7 lbs 8 oz from 6.15 the week before.  She's rockin' it and growing.  Today she started smiling at me with that half smile that I'd like to think was meaningful (and not just gas or an accident) because I was talking to her.  We'll see if it returns.  We still haven't figured out exactly who she looks like (she just might have her own look...I guess she's entitled to it) but she sure is sweet. 

One last thing I love: Miss M's curls that grow even tighter when she frolics in the humid beach breezes and become uncontrollable and free.  And Mr. A becoming so grown up that he can actually carry his own boogie board to and from the beach (to - very happily ; from- because I have too many other things/people to carry and I usually require it!), sneak off with his cousins to play their DS's or join in a game of crazy dice, and loves to jump the waves for hours on end without me.  Sniff, sniff, but smile, smile, too.