Some days…..

Yesterday was a “I want to pull my hair out” day.  Today so far is going better.  We’ve only had one major incident of Isabelle being a pain in the you know what.  That incident was her smacking Madeline in the face.  Isabelle did this for what appears to have been no reason other than Madeline was just there and it seemed like a good idea at the time.  After an apologetic hug and kiss the world went on.

She’s almost 2 and doesn’t know any better.  That’s the sentence that repeatedly goes though my mind when I just want to lose my mind.  I don’t know what it is these days with Isabelle.  I’ve got three kids all very close in age and I do my very best to divide my attention equally between all three when I’m alone.  This was hard in the beginning when the twins thought it was a good idea to eat every hour.  Then we got them on a schedule and things became a bit easier.  And babies sleep a lot so Isabelle managed to get attention then.  And now the three of them are basically on the same schedule so it’s back to being a bit more difficult to split up my time.  But when the twins are playing together I try to make sure that my attention goes to Isabelle.  So that she has someone to play with.  Lately that doesn’t seem to be enough.  She will go from playing with me, to over to where the twins are and take away their toy or knock one of them over.  Then she will throw whatever the toy was down on the ground when I ask her to give it back to them and come back to what we were doing.  It’s getting so frustrating sometimes.

Another one of her new things is to take a sip from her sippy cup and then spit it out.  She’ll spit it out on to the floor, her tray, down the front of herself.  I don’t get it.  I have no idea what brought this on.  This had better stop soon.  She’s been limited to water for the time being because I don’t want her spitting out anything that might stain if I don’t catch her doing it.

The most frustrating part of my day is when Ian comes home and the kids act like little angles.  I’m sure he wonders why I feel my day was so hard.  That really is the icing on the cake for me.  He takes over for the 60 minutes he’s home before they go to bed and everything goes perfect.  No screaming, no fighting, no toy throwing, no nothing.  All day I get it, 5 days a week, 12 hours a day I get all the crappy stuff.  I love the time I get with the kids.  I am very fortunate to be able to be home and I couldn’t imagine it any other way but it would be nice to not be screamed at for just one day.

I am working on cleaning out Isabelle’s room to make it 100% kid friendly.  I am thinking about putting her in her toddler bed.  So that way for morning nap, which is is starting to give up, even if she doesn’t want to sleep she can play in her room while I at least take a break.  I can stay upstairs and snooze or watch tv to be nearby.  This is better than her and I being downstairs and my falling asleep on the couch some days and her finding things to get into.  The living room for the most part is kid safe, but every once and a while they manage to find things.  I think we will convert the crib on Friday night.  That way we have the weekend to try it out and lose sleep if we have to.  I’m also trying to figure out better placement for her crib until we do the toddler bed.  Right now she can reach her blinds and she’s ripping them apart.  Her room is oddly shaped and has three windows so it makes putting her crib on a wall hard.  It will be easier I guess when she’s in a bed, she’ll have her own things to mess up rather than the blinds, I hope.

Well I’ve got an hour before the chaos starts up again.  Gotta find something for Isabelle for lunch and make more formula and put my feet up.

I think I want to cry

It works for the kids when something hurts them or doesn’t go their way or when they are tired or hungry or bored.  So I think it’s my turn.  I’m tired, hungry, over worked and tired.  Wait, I said tired already.  I do my best not to complain about being tired.  I do have opportunity during the day to rest.  But sometimes when I’m resting I have that nagging feeling that something should get done.  Makes resting difficult.

Tonight wasn’t bad but it wasn’t great either.  We’re having a hard time finding things that Isabelle will eat.  I don’t know why she’s become so picky but that’s what we are dealing with.  I’ve even given her baby food when she asked for a taste just so she can see how terrible it tastes and how much better the stuff is that she has in front of her.  That doesn’t work.  I don’t want to do it often because I don’t want to turn her off food period.  I need help, I don’t know what to feed her and it’s getting harder every day.  I know that she won’t starve herself so her option is to eat or be hungry.  But I guess it’s just hard to be that hard on her when she’s so young.  You want to be 15 and not eat, fine with me, you can make your own darn food and get a job to buy your own darn food.  But she’s not even 2 yet and I just feel like I’m a bad mom if I don’t feed her something.  I have to retreat to my books I think and find some things that she might like to eat.

So the night started off with all three kids crying at the same time at various times for the following reasons:  toys being taken away, falling face first, bending a toenail back, mommy stepping on a toe, more toys being stolen, not enough attention from mommy.  At one point all three were crying and climbing on me to be held.  I only have two arms here kids! 

Then Madeline had her usual meltdown while I was giving Isabelle her bath.  I’d love to know what other moms of multiples with other kids do at bedtime.  I can’t be the only one who finds the night time routine to be a circus?!!  The twins are in a crib to amuse each other, Isabelle is in the tub and I’m keeping an eye on her and helping her clean herself up.  Then I dress Isabelle in the twins room in hopes to stop Madeline from screaming.  Then I set Isabelle up in our bed with the TV.  Yes, I let her watch tv.  It’s that or she has to go to bed at 7pm and while some days this will work, the other days she will just scream at me.  Next I sponge bath a twin in their room, then trade babies and do the next.  Then the twins are back in their bed together.  I close all doors that lead to places Isabelle should not be when left unattended.  I run downstairs, get bottles together.  Grab bouncy chair and run back upstairs.  Check Isabelle, go feed babies.

Put babies to bed, grab bouncy chair, bottles and dirty laundry.  Drop everything in hallway.  Go lay in bed with Isabelle while we watch In the Night Garden.  She loves this show.  Then it’s bedtime for her, tuck her in and close the door.  Pick up laundry, drop in laundry room.  Take bouncy chair and bottles downstairs.  Tidy up living room, possibly kitchen and then collapse on couch.

It’s a zoo here alone at night time and like I said I would love to know how others do it.  Lots of people make comments to us about how busy we must be or wow we have a lot of kids and how do I do it.  Well I do what I have to do to get things done and to make sure my kids are clean and fed and okay.  It’s not easy but that’s just the way it is.  I’m so sick of the comments.  I have to psych myself up to go in to Costco where I get looks like you wouldn’t believe.  Since when is it so freaky to see a family of 5?  If I was a Duggar fine, stare at me all you want, but it’s just me and my three kids and Ian too.  We are not a freak show people!  Now I know I’m tired, I went from talking about bath time to ranting about being out in public.  I need a holiday.  I would like to have a moment alone.  No kids, no nothing.  Just me.  I think all moms should be allowed to check into a hotel with a nice hot tub suite once a month to get away from it all.  Any mom at all should do this and be sure to bring a bottle of wine with you.  And just sit in that tub with your bottle and glass and relax and enjoy the silence and being able to just “sit” and not have to worry about a thing.  Once a month, shouldn’t be too much to ask I don’t think.  Hotels should offer some kind of one night package to moms. 

Well I’m going to go get myself a glass of something and go put my feet up and enjoy having the tv to myself tonight.  To all the mom’s out there, put your feet up with me tonight!

I’ve been promising a post for a while now..

Sorry.  I’m bad at posting and I know it.  Yes, family life keeps me busy and lots of people say to me that it’s okay I can’t get things done or do things because my family life is busy.  However I don’t always like to use that reason.  Some days I just don’t post because I’m being just that lazy.  I’ve had several chances this week to post and just didn’t.  So here I am now and hopefully this will make up for the times when I didn’t.

So we’ve learned so far not to fall asleep in the tub while reading a good book.

I’ve learned that it really does take the right swear word on a side street to convince your trunk to stay shut when driving.  That and slamming it so hard you are pretty sure it will never open again.

Also I have learned that when given the chance to go to Ikea when it’s your husbands idea you GO!  I thanked him for his offer and said we could do it another weekend.  So far our weekends are getting busy and none of the trips involve Ikea.

What my kids have learned this week:

Throwing food on floor gets you in trouble, every time.

Drinking the water used to rinse out your paint brush is not a good idea and puts an end to painting time.

Aidan learned to crawl!  Hooray!  He’s also master getting up onto his knees to see what’s up on the couch or at the excersaucer.  Way to go Aidan!!

Madeline and Aidan blow raspberries a lot.  And are “talking and giggling” more these days. 

Madeline says “Dadda”

Aidan says “Mamma”

Isabelle has so many words now I’ve lost track.

I want to post more but I find myself falling asleep at the computer.  Ian is working and I need to get some rest.  I haven’t been feeling 100% lately.  Not much else going on with us right now.  I’m just trying to get by and keep on top of things as best I can.  It certainly is way better than it used to be but I’m still looking forward to a little more freedom.  But I wouldn’t trade any of this or what we’ve gone though to get here.  I am grateful for my family and what we have.

A piece of advice….

If you are a mommy of 3 or even just one very busy little child and you are lacking in the sleep department.  Do not take your favourite authour’s newest book into the tub with you to read.  You will end up buying yourself a new book.

I will note here that I was lucky and woke up before the book hit the water.

Lesson learned.

Better post to follow hopefully tomorrow.   A highlight that I’ll post tonight, Aidan is crawling.

Back online

I’m back, after a brief interruption of our internet.  Thankfully the problem was on Bell’s end and not mine.

I only have a moment as I’d like to have a shower today.  Haven’t showered in about 4 days as I’ve just been too tired or the kids have been awake.  The kids are napping, well the twins are and so is Ian.  Isabelle is upstairs talking to herself.  She is certainly working herself out of having a morning nap.  And that’s fine with me but she was having one today whether she wanted to or not. 

It all started when Isabelle was having breakfast.  Because Ian has been on nights I brought Isabelle’s chair back out to the living room as we just were not going to be eating at the table like normal people do.  The trouble with this is that Madeline wants to climb up and stand at the chair and grab at Isabelle’s food.  So back to this morning:  Isabelle is in her chair, I’ve removed Madeline several times from climbing up the chair.   Once Isabelle is done, I remove her and the tray so that Madeline loses interest in the chair.  Well today that didn’t really work.

Madeline climbed up and was standing in front of the chair.  I guess she lost balance and boom.  Along with this boom was the distinct sound that a mouth makes when it gets smacked into something hard.  I grabbed Madeline off the floor because I knew this was going to hurt regardless of my reaction.  It started with one of those silent screams.  You know the kind, where it hurts so bad you can’t even make a noise.  Yep that kind.  And then the screams came.  I held her close and tried to comfort her.  I looked at her mouth and then I saw the bit of blood.  My heart melted for her.  I knew she was in pain because she wacked her two new top teeth really really hard.  Ian grabbed some Tylenol and a cold cloth for her to chew on.  Poor kid.  She felt better once the drugs kicked in. 

So you may wonder how this all landed Isabelle in a “you may not be tired for a nap, but mommy wants a break naptime”.  Well Isabelle saw the attention that Madeline’s fall got her.  So Isabelle decided to “fall down” repeatedly and cry until she got some attention.  At first we played her game and tried to make her feel better.  Then we distracted her with books and some toys but she wanted to keep up this falling down gig.  So playtime over, I’d had enough.  It’s been a long 5 days for me and I still have to get though tonight.

That being said, Isabelle is wailing away and has woken up her sister.  I’m going to go stand in my shower where I can’t hear any of this and enjoy the sound of water falling.  Then it’s lunch time and the games begin again!

Nap…..

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Main Entry: ¹nap

Pronunciation: \ˈnap\

Function: intransitive verb

Inflected Form(s): napped; nap·ping

Etymology: Middle English nappen, from Old English hnappian; akin to Old High German hnaffezen to doze

Date: before 12th century

1 : to sleep briefly especially during the day : doze
2 : to be off guard

Someone needs to remind two of my three wonderful little children about the definition of “nap”.

Isabelle is upstairs in her crib and I can hear her saying “puppy” with great enthusiasm.  Madeline is also awake and “talking” to herself.  Her talking turns into hollering however because she is completely miffed she’s still in her room.

At least I will have Aidan rested and smiling when I go up stairs in 40 minutes.

Today we are going to try something new.  Instead of bottles in their bouncy chairs, we are going to have bottles in our highchairs.  I started this earlier with Isabelle when it was just her.  It seems everything I did with her I’m doing much later with the twins.  And a lot of that has to do with timing and also doing things based on how easy they are.  I’d like to get us all eating at the table and now is the time to start that.  Isabelle sits in her booster seat for all her meals it’s time the twins started sitting in their high chairs.  We’ve had the twins in highchairs before but they never seem to last very long.  I know they get bored but I can only pick up the toys they throw off so often before it becomes a game.  So it’s time to toughen up kiddies.  Isabelle is a slow eater and that’s part of the problem.  The twins will be done long before her, but I don’t like to leave them unattended in the living room.  So they have to hang out in their chairs.  Once I get our tree down, hopefully this week, then I can at least let them hang out on the floor.

New Years was good.  Found it a little hard to stay awake.  I think it’s safe to say we all went to bed shortly after midnight.  The twins didn’t sleep well the first night and we had to do some shifting of beds before things worked out well and everyone was sleeping again. 

Well I’ve got to get Isabelle some lunch and get the highchairs ready for the twins.  Hopefully this afternoon’s nap will go a bit smoother so perhaps I can even get in a quick snooze!