Ok, I am really struggling in the computer department. Withdrawal!!!!!!! I was not mentally prepared for how little computer time I would have after we returned home with Addison. Our room is not really babyproof. It is sort of the central repository for all major projects in the house. And it is also Addison's bedroom. And my office. So while she sleeps, I can't use my computer. While she is awake, I can't use my computer.

To add insult to injury, our return home also coincided with Tony's return to the "outside the home" workforce for the first time in 5 years. So not only am I learning how to be "on" all the time as Mom but also there is just no way to pass her off for a few minutes to check email or blog.

Finally I realized I can steal a few minutes to at least read email here and there but that I can get more done - read and respond to blogs, update this blog, if I just use Tony's "old" office. So here I am. Eventually I hope to move my computer here since he is gone all day now and then I can actually read and respond to emails more consistently.

So this week is really crunch week for me. Tony is back to work full time (plus some!) and the visitors are gone and we are back to homeschooling and trying to fit in Christmas shopping, house decorating (for Christmas), baking, shopping, cooking, etc and I am so NOT a domestic Goddess. In the middle of it all, Addison decided to have some sort of developmental growth spurt that has affected her ability to sleep at night so she was up every two hours for a few days. Last night she was back to waking up twice, like normal, so hopefully we are back on track but there were a few days when I thought I would die by 5am and had no clue how I would handle a whole day, on my own, with 3 other kids who had needs along with Addison's normal needs. My body is whacked, my muscles are so sore, my neck is killing me, I'm living on Motrin.

But it isn't all bad! I am so in love with this baby girl!! She is doing fantastic and we are all loving her so incredibly much! She is 7 months old now and we have been together just over one month. She is now sitting on her own and playing with toys while sitting. She isn't a huge fan of the sitting and knows how to flop over so the sitting never lasts long. Yesterday she started crawling foreword instead of the normal rolling she does to get places. I have been both looking forward and dreading the more accurate and precise forward crawl :-) And she is so typical for a 7 month old - it is the forbidden that motivates her. Give her a basket of toys and she will throw them aside and pick wicker off the basket and try to eat it! There is no such thing as babyproofing with this baby! It is a full day job!

She is nursing more and more and has actually nursed to sleep two nights in a row now which is definitely the highlight of my day. For anyone who has nursed a baby, you know just how wonderful and special those times are when you just hold your baby and watch them drift to sleep from the comfort and warmth of your body and your milk. You know the feeling of that fluttery suck babies do when they are asleep. Nothing I have experienced as a mother is as connected as that experience with my babies. I feel so incredibly lucky to get to experience that with Addison too. So much so that I even actually physically got the pump off the shelf today! haha. Maybe I will even use it (finally).

The boys are all still just as in love with their sister as day one. Yay. Sort of. But today I used Boy Number One's love for his sister to entice him to take over Baby Duty so I could shower. Because showers are also something else I had not properly planned for. So many things you take for granted with no baby in the house and a husband home full time! But it is helpful having older children this go-round to help out. And Boy Number Three is ever-so-helpful in the "fetching diapers" or "fetching bottles" or "fetching anything" department. And he still can't get enough of his baby sister.

Now if only I could figure out how to get out to the grocery store with all these kids, icy roads, snow on my car and sore muscles all over my body. And actually buy groceries, get them home, unpacked and put away. That would be getting somewhere! And then maybe I could get a Christmas tree up before Christmas which would mean I could take the Infamous (and this year sure-to-be-challenging) Family Christmas Photo in front of the tree and POSSIBLY get Christmas cards out! And adoption announcements. Maybe. And then, if I get all that done, maybe - just maybe - I can find a way to drive the half hour to the Good Mall to get in line at 8am to get an "appointment" with the Good Santa so that we can come back LATER in the day to have the kids' pictures taken with the Good Santa and then spend the day shopping for treats (part of the Santa Experience at the Good Mall). But that sounds like something for Daddy's Day Off. Because something else I took for granted before this work-outside-the-home insanity and this baby-insanity was that we were free souls, non-scheduled. Now we are a slave to Addison's schedule and Tony's work. What we have to do has to fit beautifully between those two events and guess how often it works out that way? And so guess when the last time I left the house was?! Haha

So hopefully you will hear more from me soon, if I can get my computer down here into the Normal Office. For my own sanity.