Happy Birthday

My friend Susan (the same one who took the quints' 3-year-old photo portraits) took these group pictures for me as a gift for my dad, whose birthday it is today. Sadly, Isaac was in school and Gavin was at work and so they missed out again. I did it on the spur of the moment when the kids were amenable to wearing coordinating/matching outfits (thanks JJ and CJ and Mickey(?) or whoever it was who sent me the girls' outfits). This was at Monday morning playgroup this week. They are so silly!

It's harder to smile for the camera when your mom is with you in the photo. I was the one making them smile. :)

All of us are healthy and happy. Gavin has been flying a lot. The kids are talking a LOT. It's so funny to hear their conversations. (I can't reproduce one for you, unfortunately, because I usually don't have time to take notes.)

Isaac is also doing great, and we are so proud of the young man he's become! He asked me this week why ANYONE would resent their mom having another baby. (He was watching Veggie Tales with the kids, and one of the letters Bob and Larry were reading was from a kid who didn't want their new sibling.) He was genuinely baffled, even though he acknowledged it means having to share your parents' attention. Apparently he thinks his brothers and sisters are well worth it!

My big announcement this week is that after four years of being a stay-at-home mom I returned to work very part time this week. I was SO ready to get out of the house and re-enter an office/medical environment. So now I am working at our clinic as a receptionist, which in addition to usual receptionist duties also includes preparing and filing charts and doing whatever else needs to be done. Our few nurses are extremely overworked, poor ladies. (While I'm officially an epidemiologist, I really don't feel ready or willing to re-enter that world right now. It's too consuming and involves lots of out-of-office time. People always come to my door when I work in health outreach and education. It's unavoidable, no matter how much I try to set boundaries.)  

I'm finding my new job actually increases my productivity at home (since, as I said, I'm only very part-time) as well as my enjoyment of the kids. They go to daycare regularly now and love it and are staying healthy, praise God! The PNG ladies who run the Daycare are beautiful, kind, loving women. One of them was Isaac's babysitter the whole time he was little. She even potty-trained him for us in just a couple of weeks at Daycare! I wish she'd do the same for these kids . . .  ;)

Love and gratitude!

Carrie