Four weeks

Today was a busy day. After a horrible night with a gassy baby, I showered and got the big kids off to school before heading to the orthodontist. I’m getting Invisalign to straighten my teeth after they went AWOL during four first trimesters of not wearing my retainers. After I stopped throwing up with Logan, my 15-year-old retainers wouldn’t go back in, so I’m back at the orthodontist while we have good insurance that will cover over half the cost.

When I got home I took Ben outside and we walked to the park and back before his nap. Then I lay down for a quick nap before the big kids got home and I took them to the dentist. Later, Allison took Ben to the farmer’s market and the big kids went to the park. We took some soup to Shay, who is finally miserable after wondering if she’d be as sick during this pregnancy as in the past. Hopefully, everyone knows she is pregnant now. No one in the Carroll family can keep a secret. The kids went to bed good and Allison and I watched Valentine’s Day.

Logan is four weeks old. He’s a sweet baby but definitely resembles the older two kids in infant temperament–a bit fussy and demanding. Ben is looking to be my only “good baby” and I can’t even remember what that was like, with how rowdy he is now. Logan’s siblings all love to hold him and love on him. Megan is very capable with him, Gavin does a great job but doesn’t carry him around, and you have to watch Ben like a hawk. Ben raves about his “new baby brother” and constantly wants to hold him, kiss him, and say, “He’s so ‘dorable.” He also likes to lick, pinch, and throw things at his brother.

Gavin has been doing well lately. Today around five he almost started to cause trouble but seemed to recognize it and said, “Well, I’m grumpy because I didn’t get a big enough snack.” I praised him for his self-awareness and made him a bowl of soup that was on the stove. The boys in this family don’t do well when they are hungry. Gavin is also about to cross over into a serious reader. He has been reading for a while now, but there’s a day when a kid realizes that a book is his best friend, and that’s a happy day for everyone. When Gavin left for the bus stop today with a chapter book in his hand that he was continuing from the night before, I knew that time had arrived. Now, if he ever complains about being bored, I can send him to the bookshelf.

Megan is the same happy and helpful self. Lately she has become so aware of the differences in people. She wants to wear the right clothes to be “cool” or she will talk about things she notices about the non-white kids in her school that are decidedly racist (no clue where she gets it, in all seriousness). Hopefully, she will internalize the message that it’s what’s on the inside that counts. I keep telling her to get to know all the kids at her school and become friends with the ones who are kind, honest, and smart and like her for those characteristics, not because of what she wears or what her backpack looks like. School. Ugh.

Finally, Christopher is in Paris and I’m jealous. One day, I’ll be able to accompany him on these fabulous business trips. In the meantime, taking care of these babies is a full-time job, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.