A Running Collection

A year ago, about to bust with baby, I tried to imagine what life would look like with a fourth child.   Nearly a year later – life with our babbling, bouncing, boisterous Hannah looks a little like this.   Alert. Loud. Outgoing. Friendly. Busy. Curious. Constant. Exhausting. In the midst of everything. Always. I was sure, perhaps, Hannah would be laid back. At first, she was calm and happy right there in the middle of what we were doing. Apparently, she was simply saving up all her mental energy and reflecting and processing on the behavior of all the children around her so that she could join them in their endeavers as soon as possible. Today we went to the the nursing home to take Christmas Cards to the residents. She motored down the hallways vigorously waving her hands and squealing at each person we passed. She would crouch down and hide and show herself again. She was totally aware that she was being watched and that she could entertain her crowd.

 I was thinking we could just throw on some blue clothes and snap a couple of photos underneath the tree in the pretty green grass, and magically we would have a perfect matte photo collage Christmas card pile in the mailbox waiting on the mailman to disperse among all of our beautiful friends all over the world before Christmas Day. We found blue clothes. We started brushing hair. This was not as easy. William was pleased he didn’t have to be a part of this tangled mess. It actually involved some blow-drying for the humidity. We wiped off faces. He did have to join in on that one. I forgot about feet. They looked handsome sitting in the grass in a pile. Hannah’s attention was spot on and we were well on our way to the perfect shot. That’s when I heard a gate rattling that shouldn’t be rattling. PIG OUT!!! Well that was that. Amelia went into high gear directing all of us to action. Feed, ropes, hammers, nails, boards, more fee