on the move

My, oh my, little Miss Claire is on the move. It's been four years since we've had one in this stage, and I have to admit, we're all a bit out of the groove!

Although she's not yet walking, she is getting every where she wants to go. This often involves her being in places her sisters do not want her to go! We've had a few disasters. . .and tears.

One morning Ryenne thought it would be fun to put Claire in the baby carrier on her back while she cleaned her room. This was great until she realized Claire's arms were long enough to undo everything she was trying to do. Especially when Claire reached out and tipped over the glass of water sitting on her little table. Drip, drip, drip went the water all over Ryenne's c.d.'s and cd player. She quickly uninvited Claire to the room cleaning. Shortly after she proudly showed me her clean room, where she had carefully organised all of her goods. Unfortunately, Claire was unimpressed with the organization and quickly set about to undo the system Ryenne had created. It was not pretty at this point. I had to dig into the recesses of our one and only scrapbook (I did that once or twice before Kate was born) to show her a picture of another little girl I once knew who had a knack of getting into things she wasn't supposed to. Thank goodness for those "naughty" pictures!

Just days later, Claire somehow managed to open Kate's "special" drawer, where she keeps some of her prized possessions. For instance, Easter eggs that she had blown in craft class and carefully decorated. Smashed to smithereens. Tears again. . .tears and tears. The next morning, Kate gathered up all of the itty, bitty eggshells and placed them carefully in an egg carton. She wondered if she could wrap the carton in tape and save in my cedar chest so she could someday show her children. Sometimes I'll say yes to anything.

As Claire isn't even walking yet, I'm thinking this is only the beginning. While the girls are having a bit of an adjustment, I'm finding (knock on wood) that all of the messes don't bother me as much as they did 3 kids ago. It may be that I've lost all control of my life and that the chaos has become normal.

Yes, I'm afraid that's it.

I keep telling the older girls that they are actually lucky. They have little sisters to help prepare them for all of those "surprises" that come along with motherhood. I'm afraid it all took me by storm. And some days, I still feel like I need an umbrella.

Oh how I wish I could have been smarter the first time around. And the second. And the third. And the fourth. I'm afraid I'll be one hundred and two before I finally get the hang of things. And by then I'll be in a nursing home and won't even know how darn smart I am. I'll tell you one thing- this mothering business isn't for the faint of heart.

Unfortunately for my guinea pig girls. . .having to put up with my learning curve isn't either.