Now That There Are Four

I've been thinking a lot about life with 4 kids.

Why?

Well, we got our new medical insurance cards in the mail. I punched them out and fanned them out in my hand.

6 cards.

I showed them to Noah.

"When you look at these cards, it looks like there are a lot of people in our family"

He laughed.

Yesterday we split the kids up. I had the older ones, he had the younger ones.

Sometimes its "you have the boys, I have the girl"

Sometimes I say "I have the middle ones, you take the others"

About an hour into our activity Roman suddenly stopped and looked up at me with an alarmed look on his face.

"Where is Berean?" he asked.

For a split second, I panicked.

"She is with Daddy." I said, while frantically searching through my brain files to verify that that was indeed true.

Sometimes I feel like I am constantly counting children. Looking in my rear view mirror to make sure that they are all there, stopping when I get somewhere to make sure everyone is accounted for, mentally going through each one and verifying that I know their whereabouts.

I am sure this will happen more and more as they get older and we are taking them to separate activities. Things weren't that hard before Berean could move ( I remember saying that with Lincoln too!) Adding a new immobile baby for me isn't that big of a deal, it is adding a toddler to the mix when things suddenly get more interesting.

And, boy, has it gotten interesting.

I feel like I say, "where is that girl?" 20 times a day. I can be putting on her snowsuit and suddenly she will be on the other side of the room. She watches for opportunities to escape.

I have learned to appreciate the little things more: things like when I only take 2 kids somewhere or when I go to work alone. When Noah and I take them all somewhere, but we are together.
When they are sleeping at night.