I injured myself on the sunroom doorway and scratched my head and my nose, and hurt my cheek.

(Christopher asked to borrow my laptop last night and started to type a blog post, so Kit went ahead and set him up as his own user on the blog. He wrote that all by himself and used us just for spellcheck. Kit helped upload the pictures, though.)

I had My Book About Me when I was a child. I still have it today, as a matter of fact. I got it when I was ten, and filled out a good deal of it right away. The kids have loved that book probably more than I did, to look at it now — binding falling off, pages a little torn. They’ve pored over every page until I decided that the book had enough love and retired it to the fragile shelf.

Christopher asked for his own copy of the book, and I played dumb, telling him we’d think about it, knowing full well that I already ordered him a copy for his birthday. Heidi thought it would be a good thank you present for his help during labor, so we gave him the book a few days ago.

It features a lot of things a child might find interesting about themselves. Like how many teeth they have, and the name of their best friend. There are pages to write about favorite pets and sports, how many steps your house has, how many light fixtures. A page to practice writing a story and another page to practice drawing. There’s even a page to collect autographs from fairly obscure people. Like your mailman. And a person 6′3″ tall. Our mailman’s name is Howard, by the way. Christopher often speaks of Howard these days.

Every spare moment he has, he steals away to add more to the book. With the exception of “how many zippers do you have” and a “very special autograph collection” he’s pretty much done. Kind of.

See, he’s making sure to do everything in pencil. In case something changes. Like his hair color. The hair color page has brown, red, green, etc. It also has grey. See, Christopher knows his hair is going to change color some day, so he’s reserving the option to change the hair color when his hair changes. Same way with the page about wearing glasses. If there’s the slightest possibility of something changing, he reserves the right to erase and amend. Like the shape of his nose.

“I might break it, you know.”

In no particular order, things from our first week with Joseph:
- Tucking Emy into bed tonight, I say, “I love Emy!” and with a huge grin and hug she squeezes me and announces, “LOVE ME!”
- Bennett and Emy have formed a partnership. On one hand it’s great to see them playing SO well together. On the other hand, they are playing so well together in all sorts of new and dangerous and messy ways:

- Reading 3rd Nephi with Christ visiting the Nephites, we’re discussing sacred vs. secret. Christopher is trying to understand the distinction and says, “Guys, was this sacred - having Joseph?” Yes. Yes, it was.
- Bennett can sign “B-E-N” and is trying to spell his name but it’s usually B-E-N-T-T-N-E-B or some such variation. Lots of Ns and Ts. Ben knows most of the ABCs in sign language and always asks us to sing that at circle time.
- Emy has decided Joseph will be an early reader:

- Moira has been signing the alphabet to Joseph. She’s also been singing to him a lot, it’s so sweet to hear.
- Tuesday morning we were in the sunroom and Moira, Bennett & Emiline went out to play in the yard. They were out there almost an hour (before the heat hit!) and we caught this picture of them:

- I’m 106lbs, trying to hold onto that weight! The goal is to stay above 100lbs.
- Kit ran to check in at the office before they took off this week for a big convention, Joseph was asleep, and I had four very awake kids so a nap was not an option. We put the time to good use:

- Joseph can lift his head and turn it side to side and push away from our chests when we are holding him. Impressive head control.
- Christopher & Moira both received thank you gifts from us for their extra special help this last month. They’ve done not just their chores but lots of extra things to help out around the house and are amazing at assisting me with Joseph and the younger kids. So we got them some special Big Brother/Big Sister gifts:
More on Christopher’s book later, he’s thrilled… yes, our kids get that excited over books. Educational books at that. This is what happens when you hide the tv, they have to get excited about something.
- Each month we’re going to take a picture of Joseph next to this little rhino a new friend gave us. Starting with one week (since I didn’t get a shot at birth with it!) then one month on through his first birthday:

That’s not the official shot, I’m saving the 12 for later. That’s just to show the rhino.
- Bennett has a little poster/worksheet thing he’s decided is his laptop. He carries it around, sets it up and pretends to type:

These are the things I don’t want to forget. I’ve had some moments that have emotionally caught me off guard but all in all? A pretty wonderful week. You know, beautiful and healthy new baby and four spectacular big siblings and a husband beyond compare. Not a bad week, I must say…

I’ll be posting more pictures in the gallery tonight.

I remember when I was pregnant with Christopher that I wondered how I could ever love another person as much as I loved Kit. Not that a love for spouse or child are comparable, but I was so in love with Kit that I just didn’t know how I could adore anyone on any level approaching that. Then I had Christopher and even with the PPD I fell very much in love with him and have loved him more and more and more every day since. Even on those days he made me bonkers.

Same thing, pregnant with Moira I did have the thought that I couldn’t love another child with quite the same adoration that I loved Christopher. Then she was in my arms and I started to slowly catch on - OH, you mean I’m going to love all of them this much?? Even writing that brings tears to my eyes…

So, I no longer fear that a new baby will be less loved. Bennett and Emy came along and entered the wild rumpus and there’s enough love… I’m confident that when they arrive and I see that face that I will love them as if I’ve known them forever. Because I believe that I have. I believe this little passel of monkeys was meant to be with us, that each one is our child forever and that years and years ago I began to get a hint of the joy that was to come with our sons and daughters. Before they began to arrive… but that’s a long other story.

My point is that there is plenty of love to go around. There are two beautiful aspects of this (well, at least two.) With each baby, the love just grows. You’ve all heard that cliche but it’s true. I heard it compared to a candle - each candle lit by another does not diminish the light of the first. It just provides even more light. There’s more and more love with each baby that comes. More chaos, and less sleep, but there is more love. You fall just as hard for baby number five as you do for baby number one.

Actually, that’s not true. You fall harder.

You do. When Moira came and I first let Christopher hold her, I fell in love with both of them. I loved Christopher even MORE because I saw him grow and I watched their relationship develop. Each child you welcome into your family makes you love your other children with a deeper and deeper appreciation because you see how each member of the family grows and stretches to welcome that new little one.

I won’t even get into how it alters your relationship with your spouse, because that’s a whole other post. You think you love your spouse on your wedding day? Just wait… just wait. And as hard as you may love them on the day you first see them smile at your new baby? You think you love them after that first little one comes, but then another comes and you love them more. I’ll have to save this for a new post. But Joseph’s birth day was… I’m staring at my computer at a loss for words.

It topped my wedding day. And that’s saying something. And I know Kit won’t be bothered by that because today I overheard him tell a friend that this birth experience is comparable only to the day we were in the temple together, being sealed as an eternal family. SO, I know he feels the same way…

Last night Joseph was being fussy. I nursed and nursed and nursed and then Kit took him. Sat next to our bed in the glider and held our son. I could see his profile in the dark room, backlit by a light by our sink. Just the outline of my husband, rocking my baby to sleep. And as exhausted as I was, as bone weary, I could not sleep. I lay there, trying to forever imprint that image in my mind. Wondering how I could ever love them more, love each of them, fully appreciate this life and these loved ones. Knowing, finally starting to realize, that I’m going to fall more and more and more in love with each of them every day.

Postpartum is hard, but there are also precious moments of peace and perspective…

So, why give Joseph Thaden my maiden name as his middle name? Well, because Thaden is a cool name. And we kept hearing more little boys named Braden, Caden, Jaden, Haden, etc. And Thaden is similar, but unique! I’ve not heard any other kids being called Thaden. It’s pretty unique even as a maiden name. (Thaden is a tiny town in northern Germany and it’s pronounced differently over there. Sounds more like Toden instead of Th-AY-den.) Anyway, I love the name Thaden. Good name. I kept it.

But beyond that, we have a neat tradition now going for our boys. Here’s the line up:

Russell Christopher Pierce

named after Russell Thaden (Christopher’s grandfather) named after
Sarah Jane Russell (Christopher’s great-great-great grandmother) b. 1845

Bennett Michael Pierce

named after Bennet Triton (Bennett’s 14th great-grandmother born around 1609 from his paternal grandmother’s side) named after
Meade Bennet (Bennett’s 16th great-grandmother)

Joseph Thaden Pierce

named after Heidi Thaden (his Mommy!)

So when we were coming up with middle names (we knew his first name was Joseph) Kit really liked the idea of using Thaden and when we realized the connection, it was perfect. All of our boys have been given names that are maiden names from the family. I love it and think it’s a neat tradition to pass on to them, should they choose to pass those names on as well someday.

The girls will have to decide if they’re keeping Pierce or not when they grow up, I figure when they marry they’ll have to sort out enough maiden/last names. On my family side the girls do not have middle names so we can keep our maiden names as middle names but I hyphenated. But the kids are just Pierce. I think Pierce would be a great first name and maybe one of the girls will use that for a first name for their child and keep the maiden name tradition going. Russell, Bennett, Thaden, Pierce - great names, don’t you think?

I had a moment this morning that could only be compared to the way I felt when I knelt in the temple across from Kit and looked into his eyes on the day we were sealed. That day in the temple involved a lot of planning and organizing and excitement and coordinating of travel plans, but really it was just that moment that mattered. When I was there, holding Kit’s hand and feeling the enormity of the situation as we were married for time and for all eternity. Our forever family began.

This morning I was finishing up changing a diaper. Romantic, eh? Kit was helping the toddlers crawl onto the bed to say good-morning to Joseph. I looked around my room and saw my family. Kit, all five little ones. Everyone cooing over the baby, in our home, all together at last. I looked at Kit and I said, “Look at this - all of them.” And I felt that same sense of the enormity of this - our family. And this sense of peace, this overwhelming awe that we are here, that eight years after that moment with Kit I would be having that same emotion as I looked at the family we’ve been blessed with… they are here. They are here and healthy and safe.

Both of those experiences left me with such a perspective, this realization that at this very moment I am exactly where I am meant to be, that my life has lead me to this moment with these loved ones. That somehow everything has aligned and this is another one of those milestones in this eternal journey that I will treasure forever.

Oh, and a moment of sweetness until we get pictures posted - our doula had just dressed Joseph for us and handed him back in an outfit he outgrew about 5 minutes later. I wasn’t expecting him to be quite so big:

Update: My favorite comment from today is Moira - “I tried to calm him down but he wanted your boob.”

I’m in the midst of an intense contraction and C whispers, “Are they getting stronger?” I nod yes and open my eyes to his big grin and two thumbs up as he says, “That’s good, it means the baby is going to come soon - I can’t wait!!”

Everyone needs a cheering squad like this for labor. (NO, that does not mean I’m in labor yet. )

Update with pictures: Kit captured these shots. He showed Christopher how to give me counter pressure and he was such a sweetie and wanting to help out. After what C had just said, I thought this was a fitting doula picture:

Some little posts up on the school blog.

I’m STILL PREGNANT!! More pregnant than I have ever been in my life, passing C’s pregnancy now by one day. Insane… I thought something was happening Monday afternoon when the contractions were going from 1:30pm until 9:30pm and every 5 minutes, but nope. So I decided to try and sleep through them and wait for morning, if possible. But after getting up with contractions every hour I gave up and got up at 2:30am and I’m sure I’ll be exhausted today… sigh…

My new glasses came in from Zenni Optical and so far I love them. I got the $8 set for glasses, almost identical to what I have now (but way, way cheaper since I got mine from Sams) and so far I love them. They seem to fit better, too, but that may be because my kids beat my old frames up. I also ordered prescription sunglasses in a chunky black frame that are cute, those were $15. With shipping for both pairs I only paid $29 total!! It took two weeks to arrive. I’ll post pictures later, when the entire house isn’t asleep except me and Mojo the Monkey.

We got thank you gifts for the older two kids. Since Christopher can now read the blog (and likes to read it over my shoulder) I won’t say what yet, but we got something for Christopher & Moira to thank them for all their help in the pregnancy. They’ve been huge, huge assistants with taking care of the house and the younger kids so we’ll give them these treats when the baby comes. I admit, we got them educational stuff. But it’s still fun.

I’m wondering if Mojo is scared to come out when it’s 105 degrees. I would be. There was a cat in our yard so all the kids raced out to see and I sat in the shade with them - I lasted maybe 10 minutes. I realize my internal thermostat is off but MY WORD, IT’S HOT. Between the elevated body temp of being pregnant and lugging around this little baby chunk-o-cuteness, I’m sweltering. And at night, Emy’s decided her favorite spot to sleep (naptime, too) is with her head tucked right under my chin. So I have an internal and external space heater. If I try to scoot away from Emy she just scoots closer and flings body parts over me as if to trap me in place. Her little sensors to let her know if I try to escape. She’s been out of our bed for months but suddenly she’s coming into our room every night to scootch in. Which will be a problem soon if Mojo is in that spot.

Bennett just wandered past (I’m on the couch, Kit’s in bed) and I snagged him to try and get him back down. He kept insisting, “Mommy, I need my Daddy.” Poor Kit… he carried him back to bed and they’re asleep again.

Moira was asked to give a talk in primary on Sunday. If we can manage I’ll send her with Kit to help and it will be brief (couple minutes) but I’m nervous. I know at that age (5) they don’t expect much coherency from kids but still. I know her speech is a challenge and I’ve seen people’s expressions when they are trying to understand her but have NO CLUE what she is saying and it still breaks my heart every time. She’s so bright, and so full of ideas and fun and jokes and questions. But because her speech is hard to understand, Kit and I both fear that people are not realizing her age (they assume she’s younger) and not realizing how bright she is - that she understands everything they are saying to her, even if she cannot clearly express herself back. I can see now how the speech is posing problems for her more and more when she interacts with others and we’re constantly trying to figure out more ways to help her overcome that. We can translate for the most part but she’s old enough now to realize we’re translating for her and how is that making her feel? Sometimes she’ll say something to someone, they’ll not catch it so I try to explain and I watch her face as she hears me repeat what she’s said and I hate that. I hate wondering how that must feel, to need a translator and to be so misunderstood. I fear she’s going to give up and stop trying to express herself. We see how frustrated she becomes when she’s upset and cannot quickly convey what she wants to say and the stress only makes it that much harder for her to get the words out. I hate to see her struggle…

It’s 4:15am. I’m gonna need a nap today…

or, “Baby Come Out Song” if you ask Mo.

C and Mo collaborated on a welcome home song for Mojo, with a little help from Dad. Seriously. Just a little. I only balanced volume levels and such. I’m just the producer, I swear.

The drums, mandolin, and piano are canned loops. The harmonica was performed by both Mo and C — they took turns. And of course, they sang all their own parts.

Anyway, here’s the song. Song For Mojo.mp3

Now, I had a little trouble wrangling the kids closer to the mic. I know, that’s the job of the producer, but it’s a little nerve wracking to sing into a mic for any purpose, so we applaud their bravery all the same.

Here are the lyrics, in case you want to follow along:

(C’s verse)
A new one is coming.
It will be joyful.
It’s a happy time of year!

(Mo’s verse)
It’s fun to watch the baby asleep
with that song on.
But I like to play the drum song
with the baby awake.

Moira (5 years old)
- horse teacher
- astronaut
- mom
- teacher who teaches at home
- baker
- firefighter
- light person who makes lights
- helper to help people
- ice cream person
- in Daddy’s rock & roll band

Christopher (6.5 years old)
- I want to be someone who builds and programs robots.
- I want to homeschool.
- I want to be a dad.
- I want to be a rock & roll band player. (With Dad.)

Bennett (3.5 years old)
- W
- 3
Bennett is apparently planning to be a Muppet?

Emy (23 months)
- “No grow up.” And that’s a quote…

Kids are looking at their albums and Kit’s. Random thoughts:

- Emiline and Moira look so much alike as babies that I cannot tell them apart in some shots and they cannot tell themselves apart in most shots.
- Christopher has my complexion but the rest all have Kit’s complexion.
- Bennett & Emiline have my wavy hair, but Mo’s hair is far darker than Kit’s or my hair as kids. Christopher & Moira both have Kit’s straight hair. And on the topic of hair, Mo’s hair is now so thick and long and she does this little hair flippy thing to get it out of her face and oh, my, it kills us every time. I told Kit I’m sticking her in ponytails for the rest of her life to avoid seeing that little hair toss that makes her look way too old for my tastes.
- Nurses made comments about Bennett’s dark eye brows and long eyelashes being from the steroids (common among preemies) but really ALL of our kids have thick, dark eyebrows.
- In most of Bennett’s “Baby’s First…” shots he’s on oxygen. Okay, pretty much his entire baby book, since he was on oxygen for his first 10 months… but looking at them made me sad to remember how fragile he was. There are some shots that he and Christopher look SO much alike but the oxygen tubing is a glaring reminder of who is who. Now the glasses give it away. Okay, the wavy, crazy Bennett hair, too.
- Our kids have a strong family resemblance.

This has been fun to see their baby pictures and remember how tiny each of them was and how much the older kids wanted to cuddle on and love the new baby. We thought the older sibling seemed SO BIG when we had new babies but really, they were all still just babies. C was not yet 18 months when M was born, M was 21 months when B was born, B was 15 months adjusted when E was born (19 months actual age.) E is now 23 months old, she’s by far our most talkative kid at this age. She runs and leaps and climbs and bosses people around. (Couple days ago she yelled, “GO TO SLEEP, BENNETT!!”) She’s developmentally our oldest child when the new one arrives. And yet she’s still my baby. Itty bitty (just hitting 21 lbs!) and cuddly and snuggly and still just my baby. But when I see her holding Mojo I know she’ll start to look like a big girl and that makes me sad in some ways.

Everyone napped today except Christopher & me. We sat at the table talking, eating french toast sticks. I was trying to memorize his face at this stage. He’s turning seven years old this fall. SEVEN. And I was left once again wanting to freeze these moments somehow because they fly by too fast. My babies are growing too, too fast.

Is it possible to pull a muscle in your rear? If so, I must have. I stopped playing Wii Sports mid-pregnancy when it was making me contract but Christopher had requested we play some Wii before the baby came - tennis game with Mommy and I thought I would try some bowling. OUCH. It doesn’t induce labor (well, if I have Mojo tonight then we’ll count it) but it gave my tush a serious work out. Now I can’t go into labor until my bum has a chance to recover from the trauma of the bowling lunges.

Looking at that first picture makes me think, “Gee, I’m starting to show a bit!” I’m not even 39 weeks yet, imagine me if I got to 42!

Then random asides from today - you know you’ve crossed over into being good friends with someone when they bring you ice cream. You know you are really good friends when they bring you Depends. (YIKES, I should explain that comment!! Depends are on the supplies list for the birth center for postpartum. HAHAHA, that sounded so weird. Depends. But yes, they’re for a postpartum supply and you really didn’t want to know that unless you’ve already had a baby or are going to have a baby in which case seriously - they’re great for postpartum!)

Laying in bed this evening, kids playing, Kit comes in and lovingly wraps his arms around me and says tenderly, “I’m sorry you’re so cranky.” How could I not laugh?