Introducing Baby

One of the things I find annoying when we go out as a family and people see three older girls and a baby boy, they assume that we were trying for a boy. Then they actually have the gumption to say it to us! Good grief people! I have an uncle that did that-- Told the wife that he wanted a son and they kept having girl after girl after girl. He finally quit trying after the 5Th girl and the doctor said the wife could have no more babies. We were perfectly happy with our girls. We did not have another baby to try for a boy. We had an oopsie!

Funny thing, when it came time to pick a name for the baby, all we could think of was names for boys and we drew blanks for girl names. So imagine our surprise when we had a sonogram and found out it was a boy! huh. Following our tendency for old-fashioned names, we came up with Angus; which got shot down when more than one person asked why we were naming him after a bull. Then we came up with Griffith/Griffin (couldn't decide which) and several people waned to know why we were naming him after a mystical creature and we must be Harry Potter fans. pfft! Then we liked the name Jack until we found out it was on the most popular boys' name list. Nix that.

All of the girls have middle names after one of their grandmothers, so we wanted to keep that going for Baby. Lucky for my Dad, his middle name is our last name, so all of our kids carry his middle name. Then Andrew made a suggestion that we just thought was perfect! His granddaddy's nickname was Pete even though it is nothing like his real name. When someone called Pete by his real name, Grandma Helen had no clue who they were talking about-- though it was her own husband! I asked, but no one really knows why he was called Pete, but in Grandma Helen's personal effects, is an old black and white photo of Grandaddy and written on the front is "Handsome Pete". So we named him...


Peter! He can be quite the little monster!


After having 3 girls, it is absolutely amazing to see the difference in raising a boy! He has way more toughness than the girls did and he is much more rough than the girls are. He has head-butted me and dang, it hurt, too! I am pining for the all the safety equipment that we got rid of before Peter was born. I refuse to spend more money on buying door latches and gates all over again, which is partly why I am constantly on my toes keeping after Peter! I figured out how to loop a dishtowel through the handles on the cupboards in the kitchen to keep Peter out, but then he just goes after the dog food and water bowl. He gravitates towards any room with lights on, so we have to remember not to leave lights on or else he wreaks havoc in that room. He climbs the table and looks like he has conquered the tallest mountain! The boy simply does not sit still!

I think we all breathe a small sigh of relief when he goes down for his 4-hour nap. The girls can break out their crafty projects, I can relax a little bit and even Grandma comes out of hiding in her apartment to join us for the afternoon activities.


He is such a happy boy. He is definitely a mama's boy, preferring me over Daddy, but that's just cause I baby him a little bit. We aren't planning on any more kids, so I know he'll be my last baby and I am cherishing every moment I can get. He hugs back now and I love when he puts his arms around my neck and squeezes hard. *melt melt melt!*

He's a tosser! He likes to pick things up, throw it, pick it up and throw it again! Not so bad when it's something soft like a teddy bear, but when it's a hard toy that could break or break something, it becomes an issue. We have really narrowed down the toys available for him to play with because of that, which makes it much easier to keep the house clean, so no complaints from me. :o) At 18 months old, he doesn't really talk yet, but we have heard him say a few words: mama, woof-woof, daddy, to name a few. He signs more words, so he knows how to make himself understood. He signs words like: more, milk, hungry, bath, full, all done...


He is a really good baby, easy to please and when he isn't being a little monster, fun to be around. If you point at the dog, he'll woof-woof. If he sees the cat, he'll make a bee-line for it. When I take him with me to the chicken coop, he delights in seeing the chickens up close. When I pass in front of a mirror with him in my arms, he laughs at our image and claps his hands. He has all of Daddy's ticklish spots and I love to hear his laugh. When he is quiet and rests his head on my chest, I love to smell his soft hair and hold him close.

I never imagined having a boy after 3 girls, and now I cannot imagine a life without him. Evelyn, Gretchen, Sylvia and Peter make our family complete.
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