Our bookends

Five Months Old!

Laney is as sweet as ever these days.  She chows through jars of food with the best of them.  Rice cereal, oatmeal cereal, bananas, carrots, and peas are all favorites.  Really, she hasn't met a food she doesn't like yet.  I'm pleased that she is still a solid nurser as well.  Carrigan and I may have even allowed her a teensy-tiny bite of a solid pretzel at Target the other day, but don't let that secret get out. Laney is now comfortable on her back and tummy and rolls both ways easily.  She is also beginning to scoot along on her front and manages to get herself in various places.  Her exer-saucer and Bumbo provide not only good entertainment but precious protection from her her-loving sisters.  She is beyond patient with them as well as the busyness of a big family.  Definitely a trait of a fourth-born babe.  That smile of hers lights up our lives constantly and she is much, much loved.

Scenes from a fantastic May birthday party

First bites

Excuse the lighting...but the porch is really a lovely place for dinner.

Delaney has been eyeing our food for quite some time.

So her daddy obliged.

We have no idea how she twisted herself in that Bumbo...she was just SO anxious for food.

Then Mali took over.

And all were happy.

May Weekend To-Do List

1)  Celebrate the Man of the House.  34 years!  Happy birthday to the guy who loves all of his girls in such wonderful ways.  We are so blessed  by him.

2)  A May birthday calls for a party in the park.  Rosemary chicken and rum cake are on the menu.  Can't wait!

3) Not for Laney, however.  Miss Cakes is on to rice cereal and boy, does she love it. Pictures to follow!

4) Mother's Daylunch with Mali and Brinnly at school today.  How sweet (and grown-up!) is that?

5) Pittsburgh Marathon relay on Sunday!  Wish me luck as I run my first 3.5 mile race since Laney arrived.  Sunday morning races also involve a more complicated relay of a kids-race-church combination.  Jonathan offered to bring the girls to watch me finish and I love the idea of encouraging them to run themselves someday.   Actually, our family is now big enough to have a relay team of our own.  Watch for us in the Pittsburgh Marathon 2025!

Four Months Old

Our precious Laney!  Oh, we love those smiles so.  And yes, that is a tutu she's wearing.  She is a Ward girl, after all, and dress-up clothes are to be expected.  The "background" is compliments of Mali, who thought a toy and dress shoes would be the best additions to this photo shoot.  Laney did get the memo that the bedtime at the Ward household is 8:00 pm, which we are grateful for.  She's still usually up once a night to nurse, but it's do-able.  Some days.  She's incredibly interested in watching people eat these days so we think it's time to pick up some rice cereal.  She's also a big fan of her swing and bumbo and car seat toys.  And her sisters are still big fans of her.

Some days call for a slip-and-slide

Who care if it's April?  And next week's forecast calls for snow showers?  Carpe diem. 

Enjoying the Small Things

I've been an avid follower of this blog for some time.  (The big sister featured on it may or may not have been a partial-inspiration for Delaney's name and nickname)  I'm thrilled that the author now has a book out!  I even broke the -no-TV-in-the-morning rule to catch her interview on the Today show. Here's the description for the memoir, Bloom:

Love me. Love me. I'm not what you expected, but oh, please love me.

That was the most defining moment of my life. That was the beginning of my story.
From the outside looking in, Kelle Hampton had the perfect life: a beautiful two-year-old daughter, a loving husband, a thriving photography career, and great friends. When she learned she was pregnant with her second child, she and her husband, Brett, were ecstatic. Her pregnancy went smoothly and the ultrasounds showed a beautiful, healthy, high-kicking baby girl.
But when her new daughter was placed in her arms in the delivery room, Kelle knew instantly that something was wrong. Nella looked different than her two-year-old sister, Lainey, had at birth. As she watched friends and family celebrate with champagne toasts and endless photographs, a terrified Kelle was certain that Nella had Down syndrome—a fear her pediatrician soon confirmed. Yet gradually Kelle's fear and pain were vanquished by joy, as she embraced the realization that she had been chosen to experience an extraordinary and special gift.
With lyrical prose and gorgeous full-color photography, Bloom takes readers on a wondrous journey through Nella's first year of life—a gripping, hilarious, and intensely poignant trip of transformation in which a mother learns that perfection comes in all different shapes. It is a story about embracing life and really living it, of being fearless and accepting difference, of going beyond constricting definitions of beauty, and of the awesome power of perspective. As Kelle writes, "There is us. Our Family. We will embrace this beauty and make something of it. We will hold our precious gift and know that we are lucky."

Isn't that beautiful?  What a reminder that all children are a precious gift.

While I was unpacking suitcases and Easter gifts...

"Mommy!  I need help washing my hands" 
"Why?"
"They are all sticky"

(In other words, she had found a Cadbury Egg in the suitcases and quickly devoured it before she was caught.  The sticky hands, however, will give you away every time). 

And if you really want and earfull, just ask Miss Carrigan about the scary, scary peacocks at the Michigan City zoo.  Those feathers!

Glimpses of our Easter Weekend

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Blessed Easter!

With love from,

Jonathan, Kaethe, Amalia, Brinnly,

Carrigan, & Delaney Ward

Holy Week

This is often a difficult time of year.  Our family has been hit hard in the past few weeks with the general life annoyances.  The dishes and laundry piles keep coming.  Work has demanded quite a bit of Jonathan's time.  Laney has been sleeping, well, like a three-month-old.  Our calendars are a little too full.  We seem to have every possible virus--fevers, sore throats, rashes, hives, pinkeye, and everything in-between.

And that's just with the six of us.  People close to us have been struck by much more severe grief and sadness lately.  Our hearts have been hurting as we have watched dear ones suffer.  This world is a tough, tough place sometimes.

But...we know this is not the end.  We are almost there.  Lent will be over soon.  Easter is merely hours away.  Tomorrow we will once again sing "Allelulia!" for we know that Christ is risen.  He will wipe every tear from our eye.  Small struggles and big ones.  We now how this story is going to end, and we know it will be glorious.

Three Months Old!

Current obsession...The Hunger Games

This card was going around on Facebook and I couldn't resist.  I usually have no use for fantasy of any kind, but The Hunger Games might possibly be my favorite books ever.  Less than 48 hours until the movie debut!

Madame Mali Curie

There are big expectations in Kindegarten these days.  One example is the "Scientist of the Week" for Mali's class.  When it was our turn, she was to choose an experiment, practice it several times at home, create a visual aid to accompany it, and finally present it in front of her class. Her teacher even videoed it! Science has always sparked curiousity it her and she loved it.  If anyone needs to know how to create "Red Lava Bubbles" now you know the girl to ask.

A Month of Updates

Laney will be three months old tomorrow!  Where has our newborn gone?  And where exactly did the past four weeks go?  We are dangerously close to not having an blog-recording of that time.  So here goes...

The weather has been amazing.  Mali and Brinn have been fighting a little virus, our car was in the shop for two days, and our to-do lists seem to be never-ending, but 80 degrees and sunshine makes it all worth it.  Here are some of my favorite pics from the past few days.  As always, Kellie captures those moments beautifully at her blog here.

Two Months Old!

Do you know how hard it is to get a good picture of a two-month-old?  Especially when you have three "prop-directors"?  Seriously, that Pooh one was the best of the bunch.  It in no way captures her cuteness.  But Mali thought a crown would help the cause.  Our Delaney-Cakes is sweet as pie lately.  She smiles so wide it takes over her whole face.  Sometimes we here little coos instead of the normal newborn grunts we were used to.  The co-sleeper that was next to our bed has now been taken down and most nights she's down to one feeding.  A few nights we've even gotten a full. night's. sleep.  Glorious.  Her fussiest time is still from 8:00-10 pm which we think is just a ploy for individual time with her mom and dad.  We are more than happy to oblige.

While we were in Michigan....

We celebrated Aunt Kara's birthday, were godparents for baby Emerson, affirmed Delaney's baptism, and spent tons of good time catching up with people that have known and loved us the longest. The girls were wonderful travelers; Laney included. We did learn an important lesson from that good behavior--do not reward it with a family trip to Ikea that very day. THat is known as "pressing your luck". Likewise, it's not a good idea to furniture shop at Ikea on the way home from a family vacation unless you want to spend precious nap time in the parking lot tying boxes to the van roof. Important life lessons.