Believe it or not, a year has passed since kid #5 joined the crew. It was a quick labor, though more calm than the mad dash to the hospital with kid #4. This little one was born at 5 a.m., which sounds not so nice but I was incredibly grateful it was not 12 hours prior, when I was in a huge crowd at the Wells Fargo Center watching Disney on Ice. Now that would have been a story.
Anyway, it’s strange to think that a year ago people went to large arenas and sat next to thousands of other folks, breathing on them, maskless. On the rare occasions when the baby is out in public now, people sometimes remark “oh, he must think the masks are so strange.” But I’m not sure he thinks much about them one way or another. It’s just been life for the past year.
He’s now a very happy and friendly little boy who likes to play with his new Fisher Price construction set. He’s able to stand on his own for increasingly lengthy periods of time, and has toddled a few steps here and there, though I wouldn’t yet call it walking (a digression: that whole “he’ll learn to walk while you are away” cudgel people like to use makes very little sense. For all my kids learning to walk has been a month-long process of figuring it out, making half steps here and then a little more of one there. I suspect kids also spend a lot of time practicing it in their cribs, which means that *everyone* is missing some of those first steps, whether people earn a paycheck or not…).
He is a big fan of oranges, meats of seemingly all varieties, baths, and nursing. He is not a big fan of his car seat, diaper changes, or sleep, but we keep working at it. He says “Dada” a lot. He enjoyed his cake last night, smooshing it into his face as babies do.
His first birthday also marks my first anniversary of being a mom of five. This has been quite a year, but Daddy has been home the whole time, which is nice, and his siblings dote on him. The older three are pretty good at watching him when I need to do something. In this sense, welcoming kid number five has been a bit easier than, say, having a 7-year-old, 5-year-old, 3-year-old, and infant. Or a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old, and an infant. I should go back and read my old blog posts because I think I have just put that out of my mind!!
I’m looking forward to seeing what the next year will bring, though I’m guessing that an active toddler will not make it very relaxing…
100% agree about the walking. My husband and I (who both work) were talking about this. Definitely a process and hard to say what was *the* first step. Doesn’t bother me at all that I may have missed the very first one. Congrats on this milestone!
Congrats on surviving the first year! I felt like the first year was the hardest for both my kids, although now that they are growing up they all can feel hard in one way or another. 🙂 I have become particularly interested in your posts about pregnancy (and Henry) as I recently learned that I am pregnant at 40 with baby #3. My youngest will be 4 when this one is born, so I feel like I have been out of the game for a bit. I am curious about any insights you had the 5th time around… about pregnancy at/over 40, maternity must haves, and any new products you thought were worth investing in. I recall in one of the podcases you mentioned still favoring your old pump, so perhaps not much has changed? Happy Birthday to Henry and congrats to you mom!
@Lori C- thank you! And congrats to you on expecting #3! I found Seraphine and ordered a few things from them – just to round out my existing maternity wardrobe. I did wind up using the exact same pump (Madela pump-in-style). I do feel like the pregnancy was harder, and I had some complications that had never happened the first four times, but in general it’s hard to know what is age related and what is just being tired from caring for four other kids! Probably a combo of both.
What has been really cool for me this time is having older kids who can actually be helpful, and who are understanding of the fact that a baby is a baby. A 3-year-old gets mad when a baby knocks over her blocks. A 9-year-old will build a tower precisely so it can be knocked down.
Ha! I didn’t think about that. Seeing my boys act as big siblings, and interact in general with a baby will be a treat. It’s been funny to hear the questions and comments from them so far. My 5 year olds response to the news was “oh great, another sibling to take care of.” I almost fell off my chair laughing.
Exciting milestone! I agree, the first steps seemed so tentative, it was hard to say exactly when it was walking-walking. It’s definitely more of a process, which I wasn’t expecting. For a while my daughter would only take steps when her hands were full and she couldn’t crawl.
Happy Birthday! I liked following this year’s posts! Wish I would have read this post when I was worried about my 1 year old not running like the neighbor kids. Your blog is always full of good reminders for sanity on topics of kids, work and life!