Our children can be divided into groups, some of them overlapping. First are the "big girls", Naomi and Lydia. Then the "big boys", Isaac and Joseph. Next, the "middle girls", Miriam and Angela. For the first 6 children, there is a gap of 17 to 20 months between children. Sadly, I had 3 miscarriages between Angela and Sarah, so there is 3+ year age gap between Angela and Sarah. Between Sarah and Daniel are 18 months again (our old favorite spacing), then 25 months separate Daniel and Rose.
Sarah's position in our family is therefore a bit variable. She sleeps in the same room as Miriam and Angela, so sometimes I mentally include her with the "middle girls." On the other hand, she isn't school age and she is significantly younger than Angela, so in some ways, she is the eldest of "the Littles."
So, it is as a Little that I put her in the pictures above. Our Littles are awesome, busy, exhausting, and adorable. Sarah is high energy and somewhat high strung, and has strong opinions about many things. She tends to want to boss around Rose in the sense that Sarah thinks she knows best what Rose should be doing at any given moment. Needless to say, Rose isn't too sure and there are occasional shrieks over differences of opinion. Daniel, stranded in the family as the only boy in the last 5 kids, shows much of his character in the pictures above. He is a lot of fun, also very busy, and a climber.
And so is Rose. A climber, I mean. Daniel was our most energetic climber, and I was hoping for a mellow, calm lastborn baby who would prefer to cling to the security of the earth. Rose is only 15 months so she isn't able to climb much yet, but anything she CAN climb, she does. Yesterday, she climbed up on the hearth at the end of the our family room (18 inches off the floor), goofed around, lost her balance, and tumbled cleverly into a laundry bin with a couple of blankets conveniently lining the bottom. She wasn't hurt, though she wailed indignantly. I'd like to think that will discourage climbing in the future, but I 'm not betting on it.
It is interesting having 3 little people tearing around while the older 6 are school aged. Interesting, good, and challenging.
One thing many may wonder is whether the younger ones get ignored because the parents are so busy with the older children. In our household, the answer is a big, fat NO. Rose is the pet of the whole household, and all the older kids (except maybe Daniel) adore her and cater to her whims. (We will make sure she isn't spoiled rotten, I promise.) Daniel and Sarah are also universally acknowledged as cute, and get plenty of attention too.
