the well stimulated child :)

I remember shortly after Lydia was born.... I watched the two girls interacting and marveled at how much energy and entertainment and excitement (and occasional pain) Julianna brought into Lydia's life.

Julianna's infancy looked just plain boring in comparison with Lydia's.  Sure, it wasn't all cake-walking for my second born.  Along with all the entertainment and energy Julianna brought a nice mix of early toddler risk and confusion to baby Lydia's life.  But in the end, I decided the second - born spot was pretty enviable. 

Then Isaac arrived.  And his infancy made Lydia's early months look like a white walled room with no visual or auditory stimuli.  He adored Julianna.  He regarded Lydia with equal parts fear and fun.  And he was captivated by them both.  Life as the third born?   Pretty great.   

Well, you can probably see where this is going :)

Cue Luke's entrance into the family.  This fourth born baby is one well stimulated little man :) 

Sure, there are moments that the big kids totally ignore him.  Like today when Lydia glanced at his empty blue playmat and said "Mom, where did he go?"

Luke had been in his bed sleeping for at least a half hour.  Thanks for noticing he was gone Lyds. 

Luke often gets stuck in middle of a "how many needs can Mommy simultaneously meet" contest.  And there was that time that Isaac tripped and fell onto me and Luke, clonking him on the head with a plastic police car. 

But Luke is also the recipient of some pretty sweet, full-on, focused big sibling attention. 

And if I was choosing my spot in the birth order of a family?  Well, fourth born isn't looking too bad.  Nope, not bad at all :)