My Family

This is my husband, Michael:



And this is me with my girlies, Maya and Charlotte:



Maya turned two in October. Recently I asked Michael how he would describe Maya's babyhood, and he said "she was born screaming and didn't stop for a year." That pretty much sums it up. She was a colicky baby who demanded to be walked around for hours each night. She wanted to be bounced a certain way. She woke up to eat every hour for her first several months, and at least every two hours until she was 18 months old. Michael and I learned that you really can function on almost no sleep (although Michael will say that he is constantly at 80%). For all that, though, we have been blessed with the most amazing toddler. She is a chatterbox (and that is putting it lightly) whose expanding vocabulary stuns me daily. She can sing entire songs and recite whole books. When Charlotte cries, Maya sings her "The Pie Song" to calm her down. When we are all sleeping, Maya will reach her arm across me so that she can rub Charlotte's back. She nurses her babydolls and wears them in a sling (such a good mommy :)). Michael likes to teach her funny phrases ~ she will say things like "Oh, snap!" and "Fo shizzle" and "Habisky!". She is funny and loving and just generally one of my favorite people to be around.

Charlotte is four months old. She looks like Maya, but that is pretty much where the similarities end. She is extremely calm, and has been since she was born. She is contemplative. She SLEEPS! I keep telling myself that one day she will change, start waking up every hour, but so far (knock on wood) it hasn't happened. I was reading another blog last month and she described her daughter in the exact way that I would describe Charlotte:

You came out and were all, hey. What's up. Yeah? Really? Because I was just going to lie down over here and look cute. And then sleep. And then maybe sleep some more. And when it's time to eat, I will. And then I will smile. And I will make you want to have more babies.

Her newest trick is rolling over from front to back, but it still confuses her every time it happens. She's all "I'm just chilling on my tummy" and then is like "woah! Why am I now looking at the ceiling? And why are these big people clapping?". And, Charlotte LOVES Maya. Her face lights up when Maya talks to her. I am so excited for them to grow up together.

Before Charlotte was born, I was worried about how it would affect Maya and how it was basically impossible for me to love another child as much. But, as everyone told me, it just happened. The moment she was born, my world changed. We went from a family of three to a family of four and it all made sense, the way that your love just expands beyond where you ever thought it could. I really cannot imagine my life without her in it.

God has blessed us beyond our wildest dreams, and I am so excited to see what He has in store for our future.