Oh Simple Thing, Where Have You Gone

People constantly ask me how I am handling three.

Three, apparently, is the hump. I keep hearing the old adage "if you can handle three, it doesn't matter how many more you have." (Although a good friend of mine, who just had her fourth, says this is an outright lie.)

My non-expert opinion? It's just different. It's not so much that it's harder (because, of course it's harder: It's another person!). It's just that it's different. Like having my first was different from just being a married couple. Or like having another baby join the family shortly after the first. Just different, as I expect any additional child would be.

I will say this: With three small children all at home all day, grocery shopping IS impossible. And to go anywhere, I need to give myself an hour berth on either end. Nothing is simple anymore.

But we are adjusting.

Owen, who is a whole 2 Months today, is a wonderful sleeper. Not as good as his brother and sister were, but in an effort to stave off the angry villagers and their pitchforks, I will refrain from expounding upon his sleeping habits. 

 He is a light in our family. So much like both of his siblings, yet different in so many ways.

At 2 months, he is my best nurser. And my earliest laughter, as he laughed out loud last night when I was laying him in the cradle for bedtime.

My heart swells every time I look at my three beautiful children and think that they are all mine. (I've already secured two oaths that they will love me first and foremost and be with me forever.)

And while I know Owen's features will change in the coming months, I love looking at my babies as seeing brown, blond and reddish hair and the brown, green and blue eyes. Would that they could stay so similar and so different forever!

Believe me or not, but this baby's hair is red in the sun. Inside I'd say it's light brown (which I am sure will be his future coloring).

Owen is also beginning to recognize his siblings.

He adores Elliot. I commonly find them laying near each other, just staring quietly at each other.

Jane is a little blessing and oh so very helpful to me and her baby brother.

She takes every opportunity to hold him and Owen has taken up the habit of talking to Jane whenever she comes near. Besides Lane and I, she is the only other person to secure a non-gaseous smile from him.

Almost in celebration of the 2-month mark, the children and I went on our first major outing Monday.

Thanks to my fabulous friend, we got into the Arboretum for free to enjoy the gardens and blown-glass displays they have about this time of year.

Jane, in front of the Dallas Morning Star

 We played in the water

This is one solid kid. Lane is salivating over Texas football possibilities ...

 ran in the open fields

and shared lunch with our new friends.

This is Jane with my friend Becky's oldest. They were so cute together, sharing their food and staying close together.

Owen, my sweet little third baby, stayed happily in the stroller for the duration of the visit -- sleeping almost the entire time.

So there it is.

Grandma, I hope this makes up for my lack of photos over the past month. I promise to take my camera out daily and return to my habit of blog-post composing in my mind every day.