Since Peter's been home...

My dad, aka Bubba, has SAVED THE DAY...TWICE!!!  I am terribly anemic (I get very faint if I stand up very long and can't walk very far at all!) after this delivery, we've had thrush and I have had a difficult recovery...so since my mom got a job and hasn't been able to come and meet Peter or help, my dad came up for a week and he was an AMAZING help, chauffer, cook, cleaner, babysitter, etc...  He did it all!!!  I am sooooooo thankful for him and that he could come and help us :)  Then I still needed him this past week and he came back to help again!!!  Thankfully, despite the physical challenges, I feel like I am doing really well emotionally and enjoying a very slow-pace and being home-bound all the time....we pretty much just go to a doctor if we go anywhere :)

In this picture Caroline is reading (an upside-down story :) to Peter and J.R. is doing a "play" for Peter with his Noah's Ark and dinosaurs and Peter LOVES it!!!  He is soooo social!!!!!  He LOVES being around his brother and sisters!!!!!!!!!!!  And Anna Kate comes home from school and holds him and sings to him and he LOVES that too :)

Meanwhile, Peter has been growing so well - he gained 2 lbs and grew an inch in 2 weeks.  And Jon has been an AMAZING dad doing breakfast and lunch duties and lots of parenting and keeping up with and doing all the Advent Calendar family activities all himself, all while working long hours as he has had a big case lately.  Caroline's thoughts on Jon when she woke up one morning and immediately ran to me (I'm still in bed) and said, "I so hungry.  I need breakfast." Then I told her daddy had already made her breakfast and it was on the table waiting for her and she stopped and thought then said, "Daddy is a gooooooooood daddy."  I couldn't agree more :)  I am indescribably thankful for my husband that could not be more perfect in my eyes.

My thoughts are having four kids....Four kids is definitely NOT psychologically and emotionally overwhelming like it was to change numbers to 1 or 2 or 3 :)    I LOVE having the bigger space in age b/w Caroline being almost 3 and the others not even being 2 when the baby was born.  We threw away a bunch of stuff and it's much simpler.  I always wanted to have 5 kids...we are still hoping to make it to 5...I personally think the bottom-line on feasibility is how helpful and tolerant and patient your husband is ;) 

My thoughts on Peter's name...The name Peter was inspired by my DEAR cousin named Peter Hill that was an amazing and very special person of Faith in God, father and husband that passed away this year at age 30. I was very newly pregnant (with baby Peter) at Peter Hill's funeral and I thought at that time that I would like to name my baby Peter if it was a boy.  Jon was very stuck on William for a while (he's a big William Wilberforce fan), but naming him after the apostle Peter (who is my favorite person in the Bible and wrote my favorite book in the Bible) finally won out :) Also, I really love names that sound legitimate with "King" or "Queen" in front...preferably historical British monarch's names...but "High King Peter" is one of my favorites as well...of Narnia ;).  And his middle name Charles is after Charles Simeon, the great preacher…never heard of him?  Well, Jon and I hadn't either but Jon wanted Peter's middle name to be after a pastor so I researched and found this one just so that we could use the name Charles (and Charles is a historical British monarch-name...you just can't go wrong with those :).