Donna's assessment of the household she's been born into!

Hello Everybody,

 I just thought I'd give an update after my first five days outside Mom's belly as part of this household. This is a very strange household, let me tell you...


We'll start with the big daddy man with the soft voice. After a few hours outside my warm womb, I was sitting in Theresa's arm on this warm bench they have, and this man came and sat next to me, and while it was very bright, I kept forcing my eyes open to look at him every time he talked. His voice kept reminding me of something, and for reasons I didn't know, I was drifting asleep every time he talked. It was annoying indeed, because I terribly wanted to look at him--his voice was so familiar! Then, just as I was falling asleep, I remembered it: it was the voice I would hear softly talking to Mom at night as I drifted to sleep inside her warm belly. This daddy is not so good at changing poopy diapers, though. My first night I had to go poopoo at 4am and Mommy couldn't get up to change it. The next morning, I heard his oldest daughter telling him what he did wrong. Good grief, I hope it was nothing too terrible! I mean, it would be awfully embarrassing to wear ones' diaper the outside in...   [He simply forgot to rinse out the diaper. At 4am we'll give him a break. After nine of us, he still remembers his stuff! ] Thankfully, Mommy can change me during the nights now and all these adorning fans of mine fight over who gets to do it during the day, so I'm covered there... He tells me I'm a cute baby, and he's good at burping me, so I guess he's pretty cool, as far as daddy's go.


When I went back into Mommy's room for my first nursing, I forced my eyes open the whole time (even though there was light above me) because I wanted to see what my Mommy looked like on the outside. In between telling me what a precious, perfect angel I was, she softly lectured me for staying in her belly for so long. I wasn't very happy, I gave her a concerned look with my dark eyes through the whole lecture. How was I to explain how cold it was out there to somebody who lives in the U.P., for goodness sake? Mommy only gets to hold me when the girls are busy, though, unless I get cranky enough that they are forced to turn me in for feeding. As soon as she lifts me to burp, I am snatched away by one of four girls who do nothing but wet my cheeks with kissing and shower me with adoring names. Mommy's pretty good at finding names to call me that they missed, though, when she gets her hands on me.

The oldest boy I'm not sure about, though. See, he's really tall and I was scared when he held me. He called me squishy, too, which I'm not sure was a compliment. I think, though, that it wasn't very nice because four female voices yelled at him at once, giving him all kinds of alternatives to call me.

The oldest girl is the first one I saw when I plopped into this world. I opened my eyes, and through the blurry brightness I could see her face, and I'm not sure why, but she was crying. I mean, here I am all wet and cold in this bright room with lots of noise and all, shouldn't I be the one crying? But when I tried, my voice sounded funny, so I just settled for squirming. This girl kisses me CONSTANTLY. Now, everybody likes kisses right? But 5 for each hand, 4 for each cheek, 1 for the nose, 1 for the chin, several for the forehead, are you starting to get the picture? I think these girls are kissing the skin off my cheeks!


The next girl is really nice. I heard someone tell her she's good with babies and I second the notion. She can quiet me down or put me to sleep effortlessly every time! No matter what else she has to do, she always has time for me. She rocks me and sings this funny song and I almost smile, and then 'boom' I'm sleeping. I don't know how she does it... big sister magic, it must be.

The second boy is very good with me. He's always taking pictures of me and trying to make me smile. He uses this ridiculous voice, and it's like, hey, you're a strange bird pal, and what's with the voice? I mean, who does he think he's talking to, anyway? Once he accidentally used a flash and my face wrinkled into a funny expression which made everyone laugh (except the girls who were yelling at big brother for his carelessness). He got a little sore throat a day or two after my arrival and hasn't held me because of it in the last few days. He said he missed holding me, and I thought that was nice. Yeah, so, I think he'll do for a big brother.

The next girl (I think, I'm still working on getting them all straight), lloovveess to hold me. She hates it when my bottom lip trembles so I've pretty much figured out how to get her to do whatever I want. She's a sucker for a pitiful whine, and positively adores me, so that's cool, too. If I wake up during the night and cry, I can hear her moaning "Aww!" from the loft above me. She'd rather hold me than eat, or do pretty much anything. She's getting pretty fast at changing my diaper, too, which is always nice. 


The next boy, I'm not sure what his name is, but he kisses my forehead whenever he walks by. He calls me cute and makes sure he gets his turns holding me, too. He's pretty doting on me, so I guess he fits in with the rest of them, huh?

The next girl is smaller than the other three, but I think that makes her understand me better... She loves all my cute little outfits. If it were up to her, I think she'd change my little outfit every couple hours. She also promised me she'd teach me how to play doll house when I'm bigger, so I'm looking forward to that.

The last boy before me is kinda loud. He has abundant energy and races about the room like a little maniac. My sisters tell me not to watch, nor ever imitate him. They remind me I'm a quiet, gentle little girl and the answers to their prayers after such a brother. Between looking forward to Christmas and staying in the house too much, (and perhaps a bit to do with my arrival), he's been really bouncing off the walls lately. He calms down only for a few moments to hold me, which he does very gently and maturely, before handing me back to my sisters and sky rocketing off the walls again. The girls constantly remind him that he has to be very gentle with me, but I think he's also eager to show off his (tiny, haha!) muscles to me in just about everything he does.


They also have this little white dog that has yet to get used to the sound of my cry, especially at night. I think it reminds her of a kitten's cry. She watches me, whines, cocks her head and sniffs my cheeks eagerly whenever I whimper and cry.

As far as myself, I've made some milestones already... My dried up umbilical cord end fell off my belly button yesterday, and my sisters were tickled pink to find that I have a little outtie. Mom got her milk in, so my poops have changed and are no longer that icky, sticky meconiom, which Mummy calls 'tar'. I have yet to meet the rest of my world. I haven't been outside yet, but whenever I'm carried past a window I grimace and stick my bottom lip out at the brightness of the snow outside. The kids tell me about all these furry friends they have outside, but I'm not sure I believe them, as I have yet to meet any myself. I wish I could, but Mary tells me 'not till spring'. I will be going outside for the first time on Tue. when we leave the house for my Baptism. I will be exactly a week old. Mummy tells me that I will be all white and clean afterwards. I surely hope that doesn't mean a bath! I hate water.


Mummy said I nurse terrifically and sleep pretty good at night. Last night I only woke for one feeding! The girls keep me up until bedtime so that I will sleep better for Mummy and Daddy at night. The kids pulled out the photo books and were holding pictures up to me to decide who looks the most like me. I think it was discerned that I most resemble Annie, or Theresa, though I hold features of almost everybody and I'm told that I tie everyone together in a perfect blend of Lund. Mummy also said I seem to have my own look, too, so that's nice... I think I'll go with that.

Anyway, I'm still deciding, but I think I landed in a pretty good spot in the world, huh?

Well, I'm off to take a nap. Nice 'talking' to you all!