Taking a mental picture...

I have three children...ok well four...My oldest is 10 years old...with blonde fur and brown eyes. We had her out of wedlock two months before we got married when we adopted her out of the pound...her name is Signal Luz - get it Signal 'light' (aka. Siggy, Sigue, Sig-Wig, Sig, Sig-i-nal) and she demands she be treated as a person. She's a border collie, with a border personality. When I lived in Fauquier County, Virginia, people would ask me "Do you work her?" I would say "Yes...she works very well...on the couch." Although she's quite possibly one of the laziest dogs around, she is still 100% spaz. Pretty amazing how a medium size dog at her age could still have so much energy.

My oldest human child is going to be 6 in three weeks...wow...Her name is Victoria (aka Tori) and she looks nothing like me. She's blonde haired, blue eyed and fair skinned. Merrick, my oldest son is three and is my mirror image. Many people however are saying as he gets older, he's starting to favor my husband.

Then there is Stefan (the Bubsey, Bubsters). Just when my husband had declared he was done with children, someone upstairs declared we weren't. I had always hoped for that 'oopsie baby' and I got him. He's a definite bridge between both my older children in looks. He's also the happiest baby around.

Everything about him, I try to take in. Before we got here, I was all caught up in moving and I was afraid I was going to miss out on Stefan being a baby. Now that we're more settled, I'm trying to just take it all in. I take pictures constantly, just sit and watch him, hoping the mental image burns in.

It's sad knowing this is the last baby. Don't get me wrong, as much as I would love more, three is enough for me. But I love the baby stage. I'm relishing him just discovering there is a whole world out there. For example today, he finally started really crawling around the house. Before it was just only so far. Today, I think he realized "hey I can get to the kitchen from here, then down that hall, then back, then to the end of the kitchen." I could see he was just exploring everything around him.

This stage is wonderful, but the 'kid' stage is too. Tori and Merrick love helping me cook and doing crafts. Today they helped me make empanadas. It went amazingly smooth too. Usually, cooking can be a bit chaotic with them...but they were able to divide themselves up today. Merrick stirred the stuffing, Tori cut out empanada covers and I filled them. Perfect!

I love the days when my kids work together...