My boys....

.... are growing up so fast! I took a few photos of them this evening, having finally found my camera charger (though I have lost my special lens!!!), because the light was nice just before sunset and they were playing around near the window. Looking through them makes me really see how each boy is getting "older" as well as bigger, even though they're all still so little.

Baby Samuel (not at the window, but still from today! :) )...



At almost 6 weeks old he is getting so big and sociable lately! He is smiling (contrary to the above photo, hehe!) and cooing all the time. He is outgrowing his 0-3 month baby clothes and I have started to put him in 3-6 month baby clothes in the last few days (like the outfit he's wearing in this photo). I have no idea what he weighs right now but I guess I'll find out in the next week or two. He's BIG! That is all. He's GORGEOUS, and ohhhhh I love him!



Little Benjaminny is 18 months old. I love him completely completely completely. He's still breastfeeding a LOT (not at night though) and is very giggly and cuddly. He is lately spicing that up with a lot of stubborn screeching, hitting his brothers, and full blown tantrums. Fun times! ;) He is cutting his first set of molars right now - the top ones are through and the bottom ones halfway. For a month now he has spent ALL DAY LONG with one hand or other in his mouth, whether he's talking, playing, even eating sometimes, poor love! He's very cheerful though, and not too symptomatic other than that. He has only got 2 little bottom teeth other than the molars, and 4 at the top in the middle. Sweet baby! He plays with vehicles non-stop:



Here he is at the window, looking at birds (they were all flying west for the sunset - Arthur calls it "the evening line of birds" - and they enjoy seeing them every day):





Laughing at Mummy! :)



"Helpfully" trying to put the lens cap back on my camera as I take his photo! ;) Yes, that is a small part of a day's laundry folded on the school table.



Benjamin and Nathan play together a lot now. They all play together, and there's no particular cliquiness between any pair or threesome. They just play, sometimes individually, sometimes all four, and sometimes just three of them or in various pair-combinations. Nathan and Benjamin have lately been doing a lot of rough-and-tumble play and do NOT know when to stop, being so little and inexperienced! Urgh! Here they are looking at a CD case together for some reason!



Nathan is 3 (I still have to say it to believe it!), and he's just precious. VERY stubborn these days, and although he's small for his age, and such a very LITTLE one for a 3-year-old in many ways, he is very strong-willed and assertive with his brothers (and parents!) and has no problems standing his ground during play times. He is testing the waters a LOT lately with saying no and refusing to obey and things like that. He is also whining like crazy which drives me up the wall, but unfortunately for Nathan, I simply do not understand a single word spoken in a whiny voice and cannot do a thing about it unless he uses his "normal voice". So that helps! ;) He's picky picky picky with food and has the sweetest mannerisms and STILL such a tiny chipmunky voice (much to my delight!). He still keeps his monkey and blankie near him most of the day, and walks around the house with them sometimes too. He is lately very shy about having his photo taken - either he stubbornly WON'T, or else he gets bashful to the point of being upset and doesn't want me to even point the camera at him. I am not getting many photos of him these days therefore, so the ones today were actually taken by whipping the camera in his direction, focusing and clicking in a split second! I have a few from today where I took about 2 seconds to click, and by then he had already dipped his head shyly, started saying, "Nooooo, I don't wannnnnt you tooooo!!!" or moved away from the shot. So these few were QUICK FIRES, haha! They just happened to come out nice, which I am happy about! :)




His little feeties! :)



Matthew-Binks, ohhh my sweet little Matthew! He is growing up too fast! He is 4 years and 7 months old, and suddenly growing longer - I don't mean taller, although he IS growing taller at a faster rate now, but more that his arms and legs are having a growth spurt, so his porportions are becoming so much more BOY than little one. He's a serious monkey and life is never ever dull with Matthew around. He's energetic verging on the "that can't be normal!" degree, and I frequently have to give him quick fire exercises to do just to take the edge off, you know after that 3 hour walk he just came home from! ;) He will jog on the spot for 5 minutes and giggle the whole time for some reason, saying he will NEVER get tired, lol! He's difficult and delightful. I do not know what to DO with him, but I do not know what to do WITHOUT him. I love him! He starts school tomorrow and he can't wait! :)

Matthew NEVER lets me take a decent photo of him because by default he pulls some appauling face and won't make any sort of normal face. The only chance I have is when he's laughing so much about the face he just made! So I have lots of laughing photos of Matthew! ;) I sometimes bribe him and Arthur (ohhh they are a real pair, those two!) to give me ONE normal face if I take a bunch of photos of them turning their eyelids inside out and that kind of thing (yeurgh!)! Sometimes that works. Today I just about gave up - the nice light was almost gone, and he was still just making crazy faces. I got a couple of him looking at the birds, and then that was about it!




Silly sausage! :)



Arthur - look at my BIG boy!!! How did he get this grown-up and big?! He looks even more grown up after the haircut I gave him last week. He seems so tall lately too (even though he's still little really). He is 6 years and 2 months old, just about the best big-brother-to-many in the world, and beginning to be ever so helpful around the house. He thrives on housework, lol! I should have known he would - there were early signs! ;) He is excited to start back to school tomorrow, and is basically just enthusiastic about everything, except obeying (unfortunately). He continues to be VERY difficult, behaviour-wise, and we just find ourselves at our wits end, but everything about him is intense, including the GOOD stuff. He is so lovely! I'm excited about his next year of learning, to see how he grows and develops. He also does not let me take nice photos very often, and the best ones of him are usually the ones where he's laughing at Matthew (this constantly occurs at our house!):



After that, the sun set, and it was so pretty tonight! I wish we didn't have so many BUILDINGS in the way of seeing a beautiful sunset! This was the best view we could get, from the front window. When we move, I hope we'll find somewhere somewhat less built-up and with more green space outside. Anyway, pretty sunset! :)



Oh what a hard job it is right now, to raise alllll these little boys who are still so young! But I wouldn't change a THING, not one tiny thing. Well, except that if I could go back and do it again I would be more effective and consistent with discipline starting much earlier than we finally got around to it. We are reaping the consequences and it's so so so much harder to try to nip things in the bud now that they are older. Heed the warning! ;) I LOVE my job! It's the most rewarding thing in the world, and ohhh the bonuses and perks are like nothing else! I feel so blessed right now to have all these different stages of childhood under my roof. I have an inquisitive 6-year-old, learning and growing at a fast pace, excited about getting his first wobbly tooth (not happening yet!) and so on. But I don't have to just remember the earlier stages that I loved. I still have a fun, energetic 4-year-old who is excited about starting school, loves painting and gets into all sorts of mischief. But I don't just enjoy these two and remember wistfully the sweet earlier stages they went through. I still have a precious little 3-year-old who pronounces things soooo sweetly and comes out with funny phrases, who snuggles and loves his Monkey and Blankie, and still looks like a baby when he sleeps.

How blessed I am right there!! But I don't just enjoy my three treasures and think back to the baby days and miss them. I still have a darling 18-month-old who squeals with glee at games of peek-a-boo, and his favourite story books, still snuggles up to me to breastfeed, and is busy cutting teeth, starting to do that cute bobbly toddler run, and say all sorts of new words. Such a precious stage! Growing and changing so fast and not so much a baby any more. But I don't have to feel wistful about that because I still have a sweet newborn baby to cuddle and smell, and nurse and dote on, and enjoy all the smiles and coos, and look forward excitedly to when he learns to do all the things his big brothers are doing at their various stages.

I. Am. Sooooooooo blessed. Seriously, I can't get my head around it. I have to pinch myself sometimes, and wonder that God has chosen to bless me this way, with five children, five sweet little boys. I feel sort of guiltily greedy praying for more, but ohhhhh I do! With everything in me I am longing for more! I love this journey so much, I love being mummy to each of my boys so very much, and I can't wait to start the journey all over again with another sweet little boy (really, I can't imagine we'll start having girls all of a sudden, now - can you?!). I don't know what lies ahead beyond a 6-year-old, having no experience of parenting children older than that, but I'm excited about it! And wonder what fun it will be to be enjoying all these stages with my little ones and to throw a 7-8 year old into the mix as well! :)

Well, it is getting late and I need to make sure I have everything ready for tomorrow before going to bed. Samuel is 41 days old tomorrow and by law I have to register his birth within 42 days. I completely forgot!!! I did have the odd reminder from the Health Visitor and such, but promptly forgot as soon as she'd left, so whoops, I need to go to their drop in appointment when they first open in the morning! Then on Tuesday morning, Samuel and I have osteopath appointments at the same place where Benjamin was treated. Just an assessment for him, and HELP! for my pelvis and back for me. So very glad the time for our appointment has arrived! I will try to update again soon! :)