life around these parts

After I had my first baby, time stood still. After the second baby, life just kept going. And I'm discovering that after a third baby, life seems to speed up -- in an oddly slow-paced way, which I think only adds to the dizzying effect. I'm three times as tired, and feel like it's taking me three times as long to stop feeling like jell-o and get back up on my feet. We'll get there; it'll just take a little longer.

But I'm not in a big hurry. I'm still trying to figure out the logistics of daily life in this town with three small children in tow. (And before anyone asks, yes, having a car does help, but unfortunately it comes with a handful of unique complications of its own, which I'm currently trying to account for.) It'll all come together eventually -- it always seems to. But in my current state of exhaustion my ability to think clearly and rationally has been hampered. It doesn't help either that I'm riding a rickety roller coaster of baby blues. To stay afloat throughout the day is the pretty much the only goal I make for myself each morning.

Despite the fog, it really is nice to have a baby in the house again. And Matthew is perfect -- a perfection that so far has been aided by the newborn sleepy phase, which he seems to be taking longer to wake up from (perhaps because he was, despite his birth weight, technically a preemie), and the fact that it's still too early for him to start showing symptoms of reflux. (Garrett and Caleb both had bad, bad cases of reflux, which is keeping me on my toes for a potential Round 3.)

I am also absolutely smitten by his blond hair. It's more golden than Garrett's, and not quite as dark as Caleb's. Maybe he'll end up with a head of hair like mine.

In so many ways, he looks remarkably like Garrett, but, like Caleb, he has developed a talent for finding his fingers to suck on.

Also, do you remember this post? After seeing images of him with his right hand plastered against his cheek during -- I'm not kidding -- every ultrasound, I wondered if he'd prefer that position after birth. Turns out he kind of does:

I am completely in love, and so is Garrett. But while I would prefer to spend my days gazing into his dark, occasionally alert eyes or at his perfectly shaped and adorably tiny round head or kissing his squishy cheeks, Garrett would rather tell him about the finer points of hummus, as well as how cute he is. ("Maffew so cute, Mom. I love him.")

Caleb, on the other hand, is another story. Though he does love his baby brother, his affection for him is mostly a curious fascination. While Garrett, with his previous experience with making room in his life for another sibling, has been enjoying a smoother transition accepting Matthew into the family, Caleb is having a slightly harder adjustment, which I expected would be the case. But if I'm not careful, that poor boy will quickly succumb to being a lost middle child. I need to make sure I give him as much extra T.L.C. as I can. It's lucky that Aunt Katie, or "Deedee," as Caleb affectionately calls her, is still around to help fill in the gaps with cuddles and repeated readings of his favorite books.

So that's a glimpse of what life is like around these parts these days. We've made a few brief outings to ward off cabin fever, but mostly we've been laying low and taking things as slow as life with three little boys will let us.