Good Friends, Good Times – Go Hop On Pop

Pictures taken by my friend, you can see more at www.bluelakephotography.typepad.com

Hallie is doing great. She isn’t sleeping as well as I would like, she’s up about every hour to eat, or suck, but then seems to have a tummy ache (maybe it’s that chocolate I can’t seem to stop eating). Anyway, Danny thinks I need to try a pacifier but I’ve been trying to avoid that if I could, all of my kids have had such a need for sucking, but then I have to break her from it eventually. Alyssa STILL sucks her fingers, and it drives me nuts but I guess a pacifier is better then fingers, which she might eventually find on her own. You’d think with this being my 5th I wouldn’t be wringing my hands over such simple silly issues. Maybe it’s the lack of sleep. She’s not fussy and a joy most of the time.
A week after I had Hallie some friends from the ward had a baby shower for me. I was very reluctant because this is my 5th baby, but I was very touched, and it was just what I needed. I’ve been kind of a social recluse lately, and it was nice to get out and socialize. I don’t have pictures from the shower, but if you look on the right and go to Creswell blog you can find some on her blog.
My friend Shana is back, and I just couldn’t resist getting out and playing this week. We went swimming yesterday and to Lake Tahoe today. Hallie and I didn’t go swimming, but the kids did with Dad, and Emma brought her friend along. It’s nice having Emma get a little older. It’s even fun to bring her friends places. Emma went off the high dive, which personality wise isn’t like my safe Emma, her friend was very patient with her and talked her into going off. It was good to see her go outside of her comfort zone a little and do something “kid” like. Tanner went off the high dive lots of times.
I didn’t think my kids would want to swim in Tahoe today, I figured it was too cold and it would be a day playing on the beach. So I only packed beach toys, but did throw in one life jacket. This was my first time to the beach with 5 kids, and I only wanted to bring what we could carry to the beach in one trip, I have too many little ones to leave them on the beach while I make multiple trips to the car, and my older kids are too young to make those trips on their own, and I can’t leave kids in charge of kids around water. But of course all the kids got in the water, and I was a nervous wreck trying to keep my eyes on all of them. Emma and Tanner are pretty good swimmers so I was able to focus my attention on Aubrey and Alyssa but it was making me crazy so we only stayed for 4 hours, and then I packed up and we headed home. But now I know that I can do it and it will only get easier as Hallie gets older. It was a beautiful day at Tahoe and it was fun to be with friends.