Having 8 children is absolutely wonderful… and crazy! But when the crazy starts to overwhelm, I try to focus on the wonderful. And right now, wonderful means lots of warm, squooshy hugs. You know, the kind where the arms wrap around you and the child tries to squeeze you as hard as he can?

I’ve discovered that there are many sides to this hugging thing. Currently, Jade is still too young to hug me, so I just spend my time giving her hugs. Indigo still hasn’t figured out the art of squooshy hugs; she’s still more of a cuddler – which is fine with me! Hewitt has learned how to squooshy hug, and gives me all of the groans and grunts to go with it. Greyden likes to give squooshy hugs, but does not like to get squooshy hugs.

Right now, my Fletcher is the king of the squooshy hug. He puts every ounce of his being into his squooshy hugs. (Those of you who have ever breastfed can understand how painful that can be if the baby hasn’t eaten for a while ;-). Fletcher is quite proud of his title and very unwilling to relinquish it!

Emery still does squooshy hugs, but usually giggles throughout the whole thing. Colter is still quite willing to hug his mother. But he’s getting so big and strong, that his squooshy hugs are actually starting to hurt! So, we’ve taken to mostly just regular hugs. Brett was never much into squooshy hugs (maybe she thinks it is just a boy thing?) Edited to add: after reading this Brett declared, “I don’t think it’s a boy thing – I just don’t like to be squeezed!”

Whatever the type, hugs always improve even my craziest day and calm my worst moods. And with many children, I hope to never run out of hugs!