A Blustery Day

This past windy Saturday, Andrew took the kids kite flying. I sat in the car with Isabella and watched. Five minutes into the adventure Grace charged back to the car and declared it to cold and windy, announcing: "My face is as red as a blueberry!!"

Happy Birthday St. Isabel!

Today is the birthday of St. Isabel(la) of Spain. AND today is the our Isabella's "two week" birthday! I had no idea she was born so close to the birthday of her parton saint (thanks for the tip, daddy!).




As you can see, we are having no "adjustment issues" with our previous baby and his loss of a throne. Sometimes I fear he loves his little sister a bit too much!


Three of the four just hanging out. All of the kids love to hold their baby sister. And she's generally pretty happy to let them hold her. Such a patient little girl.

A little bit of vanity, a little bit of crazy

We took our first outing as a family of six yesterday. We went to the mall in Indy where I indulged my vanity and bought a few cutie new clothes. I am on a quest not to become that mom with so many kids she can't even put a decent outfit together. We confirmed yesterday what we had assumed -- we have crossed the line into crazy big family (even though I don't feel like a big family) and everyone looks and comments. Part of it was because Bella is so tiny, and people always want to see tiny babies, but it was also a bit because we had four kids with us. Maybe it is vain, but if everyone is going to notice us when we go out, I am at least not going to confirm their assumption that a"big" family equals dirty kids and a frumpy mom!

Unfortunately, we didn't succeed in proving that many kids doesn't mean unruly kids. Ours were pretty crazy. Andrew and I fail miserably in the parenting department because we tend to laugh at our kids misbehaviour. But seriously, it's funny when Christopher leaps into a window display and pretends to be a mannequin!

Beautiful Bella!

Her Daddy declared her beautiful and decided that only the name Bella would suit her! So here she is -- Isabella Concetta Antonio


I've always kind of been jealous of those women who had pictures of the new baby surrounded by happy siblings. Now I have my own!


Big Brother is pretty pleased with his new little sister. I don't know what's wrong with her hat. Her head isn't that pointy!
Hooray for sisters! These two have a lifetime of fun ahead. Bella is challenging Grace in the hair department. She'll be wearing ribbons soon.

Little Baby Girl

Our beautiful baby girl is finally here! She came quickly last night at 9:28, after our arrival at 9:00! She is a petite little gal, weighing just shy of seven pounds.

I had a doula with me and this is something I can not recommend enough! She was fantastic and made the delivery experience so much nicer. I delivered her in the squatting position, which was great for me, but the doc wasn't to happy about it. And our poor little girl literally fell out onto the bed. Luckily she was fine and it didn't seem to phase her in the least.

Her brothers and sister are glad she is here, but still not quite sure what to make of her. I think the hospital experience really throws them off. One more reason to homebirth!

I will let you know when she has a name. We're debating still!

God might be laughing . . .

but I'm not.

Labor seems to have started. Conveniently after five o'clock. And Dr. Genaris is on call.

Innocent Voices

In amazement that the baby eats -- and supposedly likes -- everything that I eat, my daughter declared:

I can't believe that baby likes the Body of Christ!

John Paul the Second

I was hoping for an April Fool's Baby, but no such luck.

I took the kids to a little "Farm Day" at the PU Research Farm. Being the city kids that they are, they had a great time seeing all of the animals -- especially the piglets. Maybe because we are reading "Charlotte's Web" right now, I don't know. But they were really enamorred with the pigs. There were ten piglets in the litter. It made me glad that people don't have litters! After the farm, we went to a friends for lunch and the kids just played all afternoon. It is great to get out of the house and let the kids just run around with other children for the afternoon!