a growing family

I am simply amazed at how quickly the time has passed since I started having babies.

I can remember nearly everything about my pregnancy with Cameron, my oldest.  The emotion I felt then comes flooding back so easily when I dwell on those memories.  He will be 11 in November.

Caleb will be 9 in November.  I love how he doesn't try to keep up with his brother.

Carleigh just turned 7.  To me, she is just starting to lose her baby-ness.

Bella just turned 4, and is headed to pre-K in a few short weeks.

Bri is 2 and a half and can carry on an intelligent conversation with just about anyone.

All of these precious spirits have been big in size for their age.  Bri has always been on the light side, but is tall.

Then there is Bay.  She is my itty bitty baby, and different in so many ways from the other kids.  She was the largest of the girls at birth, weighing in at 7lbs, 10oz.  But since then, she has measured on the small side.  This morning at her nine month well check, she weighed 16lbs, 7oz, which places her firmly in the 10th percentile.  Her height, a mere 27 inches, puts her in the 20th percentile.  She is a very well proportioned little thing...she just resembles a 6-month-old!  Her size doesn't keep her from amazing us, however.  She is nearly crawling, can sit up well, can go from the crawling position to sitting, can pull up to her knees in her crib, and is babbling up a storm!

Her milestones don't separate her from the rest of the brood, but there are several things that do.  First, she is fair-haired.  She has beautiful strawberry blonde curls (none of the others have curly hair), although I am certain her hair will darken as she gets older.  Her eyes are very blue and her skin is fair.  Her first word was "mama" (all the others said "dada" first).  She cut her first two teeth in true textbook fashion...the bottom fronts.  The next two to pop out will be her canines...on the top!  Unlike her sisters before her who had tubes by this age, she's never had an ear infection.  In fact, she's only been to see the ped for well checks.

I share all of this with you not because I favor Bayleigh over the other children, but because I naturally assumed I would know how this sweet girl was going to look, how she would grow, and how she would behave.  Her distinctiveness has kept me guessing.  It has also helped me to embrace the qualities in my other children that make them uniquely the individuals they have become.  It has even changed my parenting style a bit.

Bayleigh Joy is our last little one (as if 6 wasn't enough, right?)  I am in no hurry for her to be older, to move on to the next phase of growth, or to be any different than she is right now.  She has helped me to slow down and just enjoy each of my short people right where they are right now.  Too soon, they will be grown, and I will long for these days.

What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.  James 4:14