The Ups and Downs of Being the Youngest

I've often envied my sister, Sarah, for being the youngest. My parent's were pretty strict and basically poor when I was growing up. By the time Sarah came along, they were older and tired and eased up-alot. Their financial situation had improved alot as well, so she had many things I never did.
Now, I look at Noah and realize he'll have the same advantages. I'm already less strict with him and find I dote on him a lot more. Plus, he has 6 siblings to spoil him as well. He'll probably get to go on better vacations (but, really, what's better than camping in Idaho?) and have a car to drive when he's 16. Oh, well. That's the luck of the draw.

There are some disadvantages, tho'. He might not see them as such, but I do. Mostly, they have to do with having all these older siblings. They teach him things I would have been horrified to have the older ones learn. Not that I'm all too thrilled about it now. I just had more control with Adam and Jake. For example, Adam and Jacob were not allowed to say 'stupid' or 'shut up' and when they passed gas, we said, 'toot'. I know, it sounds lame, but I didn't like the alternative. Well, here's Noah, with teenage brothers and he already knows these things. He says 'shut up'. It drives me crazy. I've tried to guilt Jacob by telling him it's his fault (it is), but Jake has some serious anger issues and Noah is his little parrot. His newest word is 'fart'. I really hate this, and mostly because he knows what it means and lets everyone know what he's done. I know there are alot of worse things that he could be saying, but I still don't like it. Yo Gabba Gabba and Wow Wow Wubzy may be annoying, but at least they teach him good things.
As you can see from the picture, he's going through his 'naked stage'. All my kids went through it. Why can't they do it during the warm months, when I feel a little less lousy about my kid running around in a diaper? I don't know, if my skin were that smooth and blemish free, not to mention the only fat being the cute, baby kind, I might be tempted to run around naked. Yeah, my husband would be estatic, but my kids would be scarred for life. Lucky for them that isn't going to happen any time soon, or ever. It must feel very free to not be encumbered with clothes. It must feel even better to not be encumbered with body-image issues. Ah, to be a toddler again.
Noah just had his birthday and I thought alot about him joining our family. We were done. We'd always planned on 6 kids, though some of the timing of those six wasn't planned, their arrivals were. Noah was a complete surprise. Him being a boy, also a surprise. (I think Heavenly Father had a good laugh at that one.) But, we can't imagine our lives without him. He is a sweet child, who provides much laughter to our family. If you look up his name in the Bible dictionary, you'll see it means 'rest'. That's so appropriate. He's the last one (yes, really, the pipes are no longer connected) and with that, we can let up a little, be less strict and maybe, get a little rest.