Cute girls

At the end of May we went to the Temple and took pics on the temple grounds. I especially liked this shot of the three girls together.

Life updates

Thanks to all my friends who posted congratulations on my last post--that was such a pleasure to read comments. :)

Life is good--feel like I'm finding a sort of equilibrium. Sometimes I'm not sure who causes more stress--my almost 2 yr old Kayla or Camilla with the baby demands of being held, fed, etc. Oh wait, that would be Kayla, as images of hair gel, toothpaste, and diaper rash creme spread over various surfaces of my house come to mind. Not to mention her entry into the two stage, or tendencies to take her diaper off when she throws those characteristic tantrums.

Like any two year old she has her charms and cute phrases--"gi go" or Here go, as she hands you things, i.e. pacifiers for Camilla that have fallen on the floor; "Doe know" or Don't know, when you ask her for something she can't locate, with her arms raised in a questioning manner; "Go" to keep you singing when she likes the music.

Abrianna has found her calling of showering Camilla with love. I suspect her frequent requests of "Can I pet Cami, or kiss Cami" are partially motivated by desire to get out of things she's asked to do, i.e. cleaning her room. It's not always so cute, such as when I have to lean down with Cami for the 2nd time in two mins to satisfy her request.

Emma has shown a bit of resentment at her greater responsibilities of keeping an eye on the smaller girls--to be fair, really just Kayla, getting various items from around the house, or picking up after all the girls, not just her own things. She surprised me last week in a spectacular show of maturity. She told me she wanted to help with Mommy chores; she asked me to teach her how to do laundry and make dinner. We covered laundry basics, and both she and Abri are doing better at putting away their own clothes, so that's a plus. We haven't tackled dinner yet. Overall, she fulfills the position of eldest sibling well and I'm really proud of her.

Pics of Camilla

Understanding of a 2 yr old

Toddlers are so cute yet so frustrating at times. One situation that was on the funny side of things happened while in Virginia on July 1oth. We were at a state park under a pavilion. Abri, Kayla, were on one side of the pavilion, myself on the other. I noticed I had left my cell phone on the bench on that side, not far from where Kayla was. Concerned Kayla would pick it up and drop it the ground, I told Abri: "Abri, will you put my phone back in the diaper bag just there so Kayla doesn't get it?" Abri didn't really pay much attention to what I was saying, but Kayla on the other hand, was. She promptly picked up the cell phone, looked at me, then put the phone in the bag. If I wasn't so pleased and amused I would have felt a little offended that she so blatantly understood what I was saying but disregarded the intent if not the request.

Virginia

It is such a blessing to have time spent with family. We loved having time with Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and Grandparents on a trip out to Virginia. The East coast is so green and beautiful compared to here and its so refreshing to enjoy the scenery while appreciating good company.

Hasn't met a fruit she doesn't like

I know there are some I haven't tried with her yet: Papaya, Mango, Coconut, Pomegranate, Plaintains, but Kayla loves fruit. She shovels it in when she's hungry. Here, on July 4th, I think she ate 3 slices of watermelon before she had enough.

She's Here!

Camilla Chaya made her entrance yesterday morning at 5:14am. It was a very long night after we arrived at the hospital at 9:40 pm. I was only 3 cm dilated which astounded me after the amt of contractions I had had before arriving, but my doctor ok'd admitting me, and my contractions stayed strong all night, keeping me up all but about 30 mins. In a nutshell, it was probably my longest birth experience of the four girls, i.e. the longest length of time I felt pain. Kayla's takes the cake for most painful since it was without drugs, but I'm not certain which I'd prefer.

Here I am two days later, still exhausted between little sleep on Sun night and night-time feedings on Monday night, so I think it's been the most tiring of my births as well. Or, one could always chalk it up to getting older.

For those that live around here, we were talking about naming her Rayna Rachelle up until the birth. Somehow after she came, it just didn't seem to fit eventhough it fit all our criteria for names, so we went back to talking about other names. I mentioned Camille, the name of Pres. Kimball's wife (or so I thought), and there was just something that felt right. We corrected it to Camilla since that was actually Pres Kimball's wife. It has Latin roots meaning Pure, or noble, or also unblemished character which we liked. Since we both like Hebrew names, we paired Camilla with Chaya (pronounced Ki-yah), meaning life, keeping our pattern of double letters for our first and middle names. We'll be calling her Cami for short. Now Abri won't be the only one with a nickname in the house.

Emma was very disappointed when we told her Camilla was the new baby's name--she feels its too "unusual and weird" and she doesn't like it. She liked Rayna and thought it was pretty but didn't ever classify it as unusual or weird. Go figure. Abri didn't have any opinion on the matter, and of course, Kayla is barely saying one syllable words to give an opinion.

I'll post pics soon, but to describe her: she has brown hair, less than any of the other girls, chin with prominent cleft/dimple, charcoal eyes (for now), long arms, fingers, and toes, with Todd's nose (we suspect), and my lips and ears. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz at birth, length 19 3/4 inches, the smallest of all our girls. But, she's healthy and doing well.