What do you call your baby?

I feel like a real wimp because having a newborn around is a lot harder than I remember. She's a good little baby... it's just so exhausting! and painful! and fun too but man, I really feel like I'm getting old or something. It could just be that four kids is over my threshold for management ability.

But, at least when you have your fourth kid, you know there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and I'm trying to enjoy the journey while also relishing the fact that it won't be like this forever... meaning the lack of sleep, painful feedings, messy diapers every hour, etc...

Anyway, I really shouldn't complain because she is a really good baby and I have a husband who completely babies me and is around most of the time and I have older kids who pretty much take care of themselves and each other. But on the other hand, this is probably my last time I get to complain with legitimacy, so I'll just keep doing it.

So, back to the title of the post.

We always have the HARDEST time naming our kids. I'm not like other people who have their kids' names picked out 15 years in advance. We're always making the baby name list about 3 minutes before the birth certificate form is due. I THOUGHT I was set with Poem a whole MONTH before she was born, but I still have a difficult time calling her by her name. I LOVE when other people say her name, especially my other kids, because they say it so eloquently, "Po-emmmm". But when I say it with my darn Nevada accent, it just sounds flat. So, I usually call her Baby. or Po. Or Po-po.

Jonah calls her Pi. Short for Pirate.

Elsie calls her "Poem Halloweenie".

So, when people ask her name, we still have to remind ourselves.

But, none of my kids go by their real name... its all nicknames around here... so I don't know why I'm worried about it anyway. I guess I just need to stop calling her "Baby" and just call her by her name, and then all will be right.

It snowed today. We thought we'd only get one snow this year (see Thanksgiving's blog post), but the kids woke me up too early with squeals of delight. Ana spent a long time molding the slushy snow into this snowman... he has quite the personality, don't you think? So does Ana's hair...

The umbrella was to keep him from melting when the sun came out for 30 minutes.

She's never awake long enough in the day for me to remember to take some open-eyed photos.

She's finally getting some meat on those long legs and arms.

Cam had a dream last night that a booger slapped him. Just thought I'd share.

Elsie and Ana: a study in hair opposites.

Okay. Back to Poem.

These were both taken with a flash, so not the best photos... but at least she's awake!

Blue eyes or brown? Who can tell?

Poem just went to sleep... ahhh.... now it's my turn.

Have a great January.