Finding the New Norm

We've slowly been adjusting to life with a 7th family member.  This little nugget is so very sweet and lovable.

But like all babies, she can be demanding.  Sophia is at that point where she is starting to develop a schedule but it doesn't always remain consistent.  For this type of mama, consistency is necessary for my sanity!  So we are still working on figuring everything out.  While Sophia has her times when she only wants to be held and snuggled and prevents me from getting anything done, she has started sleeping from about 10 pm - 3 or 4 am so I can't complain too much.  While a messy, chaotic house drives me crazy, I do much better with it all when I'm rested.  I guess she's got me there :)

As you can tell from the pictures, Sophia doesn't shy away from eating.  This girl is sucking down a good 4 oz every 2.5-3 hours during the day now.  She goes in next week for her 2 month check up so it will be interesting to see how big she really is.  I'd guess she's hovering around the 10-11 lb mark. 

 

{Here Sophia is modeling my Valentine's Day present to myself.  "Didn't you already have that necklace?" you ask.  Well, yes, yes I did.  I ordered it after my final baby was born two years ago.  Obviously that changed and I needed one with Sophia added on.  Plus I never really liked the font I selected on the old one so I got my favorite font this time.  This necklace tops off at 32 letters and spaces and our five clock in at 30.  Sophia has to be our last since I can't fit anymore on this necklace!  Necklace is from the Vintage Pearl.}

I wouldn't be able to get much done if it wasn't for my right-hand lady.  I was trying to make dinner the other night and Sophia would cry every time I put her down.  My darling Ellie offered to hold Sophia, while she worked on her homework no less.  That's why Ellie is one of my favorites! {I have five of them you know!}

Otherwise, we are all just hanging in there, counting down the days until Spring is here and we can finally get outside on a regular basis.  After getting around 4.5 inches of snow Thursday night into Friday, Sunday was not only a day above freezing, but warm enough to start melting our snow piles.  It felt wonderful to get outside, breathe fresh air, and feel the sun on our faces!

Ava thought it was so warm, she could wear her spring jacket.  Soon enough, my dear!

I hate to rush time along since every time we have a little baby in the house, I realize how precious time is and how quickly it moves on.  Sophia will be 2 months old already next week, which just baffles me that it could be that long already.  On the other hand, our whole family is looking forward to April and May.  The weather is warm enough for us to get play time outside every day, the snow is gone and we can really scrub the house and garage, the windows are open to air out the stuffy house, the baby will be old enough to go the gym {the child center requires babies to be 3 months old.  I'm getting to the gym 2-3 times a week but am eager to get back into my regular schedule and to go whenever I want without having to find a sitter for Sophia}, and the baby should finally have a solid schedule of when she naps so we can plan our days.  Spring is around the corner and the Wendorff family is ready to welcome it with open arms!  Until then, we'll continue to slog along and work on getting into a new rhythm with Sophia in the mix.

 



Hannah is 2!

In the midst of the daily juggling 5 children, I haven't yet posted on Hannah's birthday.  Our sweet little one turned two on the 5th!  It's hard to believe she's two years old already.

 

She really got into present opening this year.  It was cute to watch!

 

 

When Grammy and Grampy were here, she opened her present from them.  On Super Bowl Sunday, we had a small party with Papa and Grandma and Joy, Tony and Isabella.  For her actual birthday, we just hung out at home all day.  We jammed to some tunes mid-day because Hannah loves music.

Singing!

I tried to get a nice 2 year old picture of Hannah when we did the kid photoshoot.  This was the best I got.  Such a Hannah expression!

I still can't believe it's been two whole years since we were blessed with Hannah's presence.

Hannah tidbits:
*Loves music.  I mean LOVES music.  She has to listen to a bunch of songs on Youtube at least once a day.  Her favorite song at the moment is "Scream and Shout" by will.i.am and Britney Spears.  What, you thought this two year old liked "Twinkle Twinkle"?!
*Chatters up a storm.  Since Christmas, her vocabulary has expanded exponentially.  Every day I hear her use a new word correctly.  If everyone else is talking and she wants to be heard too, she'll still do her nonsense chatter but for the most part can communicate with us all her needs.
*Loves her siblings.  She loves to play with the older three and be involved in all they do.  She also loves the baby and gets so concerned when Sophia is crying.
*Still sleeps smack dab in the middle of our bed.  We finally got Carter to sleep in his own bed, only to have Hannah move in.
*Is getting ready to potty train as she doesn't like when her diaper is wet and is definitely not liking being poopy.  We've had a few diaper-taken-off-when-stinky incidents in the last week so we picked up some pull-ups to start the toilet transition. 
*Loves to play with her baby dolls, her new Mickey and Minnie mouse toys, and Carter's ninja turtles.  She also plays with Barbies and will sometimes "borrow" an American Girl doll.  Hannah loves dress-up too.  She doesn't play with typical toddler toys as her siblings don't and she has to do everything they do!
*Is a fantastic eater.  I call her the garbage disposal.  She will try just about anything.  My favorite food bit with Hannah right now is that she thinks crackers are cookies.  "Cookie?"  she'll ask!  I'm hoping to roll with this for a few years! :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Hannah Jade!

Photo Shoots

The upside to having my DSLR is that I am able to take pictures of the kids whenever I want and get pretty decent quality pics.  The downside to the DSLR is that I tend to think I'm a photographer and develop all sorts of high expectations for fantastics photos. 

 

I finally snapped some pictures of Sophia for her newborn photos.  I understand now why many professional photographers prefer that newborns be 10 days old or less when they do the photos.  I took these when she was almost 4 weeks old and she wasn't as cooperative as a fresh baby might have been!  In contrast though, I prefer my babies a little more plump, filled out, not scaly, and minus the icky umbilical stump so I like her age at the photos, just not her not-as-willing temperament! 

 

 

 

She was having a great time.  So much for my cute "laying on her tummy, hands propped under chin, sleeping" photo.

I like this shot but it's a little overexposed.  Guess it's time to figure out how to edit in my Photoshop software!

 

Best shot with her looking right at me but the darn pacifer blocks half her face.  Of course!

 

I also wanted to get a good group photo of the kids for the wall.  The big project when my mom was here was to repaint the downstairs.  The red wall is gone now and is the same beige (Balanced Beige from Sherwin Williams in case you were curious) as the rest of the downstairs {minus that gray wall that Jake won't let me paint} and then we put a fresh coat on all the other walls.  We rearranged the kid wall picture arrangement to fit Sophia in and patched all the rest of the holes on the walls so I can change where things are hung.  I needed the frame that the group kid picture was in for Sophia so she would match the other frames.  I have a big 16x20 frame from Ellie's old room decor that I plan to blow the kid picture up to fit in. 

 

Here's the best of that day.  It was quite an ordeal but the toughest child wasn't the baby this time.  Her almost 10 year old sister is getting self-conscious about how she looks in photos and had 3 pages of math homework and her religous ed class that night so she wasn't all that excited about pictures.  If the lighting hadn't been good that afternoon, I probably would have done these a different day!  However, I got a few goodies to pick from:

 

I think this one is the one I'm going to blow up.  Everyone looks decent in it, which is all you can really ask for when trying to photograph 5 children!

Conclusion after these photoshoots?  I'm definitely still learning.  I imagine it isn't as stressful/taxing if you are just the photographer and not the parent of the subjects though.  I have hopes of getting good enough to feel comfortable taking pictures for other people.  I enjoy being behind the camera and it would be a perfect job for the time being with all these little people at home still.  After being home for 4 years, working a year, and then returning home, I'm not sure that I want to have to work for someone else.  If I can do all my dream jobs, I should make almost as much as if I work one full-time job.  Rather than a one-title occupation, I'm just going to be a photographer-Zumba instructor-craft maker/Etsy seller!  Better get going on all that!

Sidenote: Red flower, white headband, and diaper cover all crocheted by yours truly.
 
Grandma Mary - yours was a little big and I wanted to give the pattern a try.  Not as good as yours but it did turn out!  I'm saving your diaper cover for the 3 months photoshoot.

 

Visitors Galore

Somehow, Miss Sophia is already 4 weeks old.  It's unreal how fast time speeds by, especially with all the little people to care for who consume my time each day.

 

The past two weeks have brought a plethora of visitors to the Wendorff household.  Grammy Sara arrived on the 17th to stay for 10 days to help with the baby and adjusting siblings.  Uncle Alex arrived on the 23rd and Grampy Tim flew in on the 24th.  During that time, Grandma Mary (Grammy Sara's mom) came for a visit and ended up staying for two days. {she was supposed to stay for one night and then meet up with an aunt of mine to fly to Florida together to see one of said aunt's children.  unfortunately, my aunt got the flu and decided not to fly here from Arizona to get Grandma.  poor Grandma.  instead of a nice week in Florida, she got to enjoy the coldest temps Minnesota's had in several years.}  Grandma Jackie and Papa (Grampy Tim's parents) also came up on the 26th to see the family and meet Sophia.  Our household has been bursting!  Monday involved two trips to the airport to get everyone on their flights back home and now our house is down to only 7 people.  It's almost quiet here!

 

The adjustment to 5 littles seems to be going well.  Hannah had a hard time with all the visitors, especially because they would try to help her and she only wants her Mama.  Mama's girl through and through little Hannah is and the arrival of Sophia has only enhanced that!  She loves "Fila" though and enjoys helping with her whenever given the chance.

 

Uncle Alex playing a game with the girls.

 

 Weeee!

 

 Grammy and Sophia

 

 Grampy snuggling with some of his girls

Grandma Jackie and her fifth great-grandchild

Grammy and Grampy and their 5 grandkiddos

Grampy and Sophia

Proof that Alex did in fact touch the baby!

We had a great time with all the company and got several projects done with Grammy and Grampy here.  Now we are working on finding our new normal with 5 littles ranging from almost 10 to infant!