Life with three

 

I'm still figuring out how to juggle three kids. My days are certainly busy, no doubt. Eventually we'll get into the groove and it will be second nature. For now, it's a lot of messes to clean up, a lot of bums to wipe, a lot of laundry...

Taking all three kids on outings is quite the adventure - getting coats and boots on, packing everyone's snacks, water bottles, diapers, etc and of course, the car seat logistics are a bit challenging. You'd think I'm trying to set a record for how many times I can walk back and forth from one side of the car to the other. I finally figured out the right order to put them loaded in and buckled up. Wyatt is in the third row so he gets in on the passenger side and Hadley and Tate are in the center so they get in on my side. We got Hadley a new low profile car seat and packed away the giant Britax so she can get in easier. Her new seat is so nice we're considering replacing Wyatt's Britax as well. We're getting a little more efficient so it no longer takes us 30 minutes to get out of the garage.

I try to do the majority of my errands in the morning while Wyatt is at school and I'm back down to two kids.  We make our way through town, chatting about nothing in particular. Hadley loves talking about letter sounds and how to spell things (Wyatt and I talk about this all the time). She'll say "hmmm, Bananas.....ba..ba...ba..ba.....  um....starts with P!" Nope, but good try.  Tate rides next to her and she loves playing peek a boo with him in his carrier, lifting the flap to say hi. She's very sweet and maternal, talking to him in a soft, high pitched voice. I love hearing her back there saying "It's ok, Tatey Tate. I'm right here, your big sister Hadley." Melts. my. heart. The other day we were at the grocery and the cashier asked his name. I replied "Tate". Hadley said "NO! His name is 'Tate, Tate, the GREAT!" She has actually started referring to him as that. Mommy, where is Tate, Tate the great?

Wyatt is still fairly indifferent toward Tate. When he gets off the bus, he'll ask where Tate is. He'll say "I need to go see him". He'll just take a quick peek into the swing, not say a word, then go off and play. I'm sure he'll show more interest once Tate does more than eat and sleep. Wyatt is in this joke phase right now where he loves telling jokes. He usually goofs up the joke or the punchline, sometimes both and he tells the same jokes over and over, but he likes you to react with hysterical laughter like you're just hearing it for the first time. Two of his favorites are...

JOKE: How do you make a Kleenex dance? PUNCHLINE: You put a little boogie in it! 
JOKE: What has 4,000 legs? PUNCHLINE: 1,000 cats!

Some friends sent a gift for Tate and included some little goodies for the big kids. They sent Wyatt a "joke maker", an electronic machine that tells jokes. He was thrilled with it and so were we - now he has some new jokes to add to his repertoire!

I took Wyatt on an afternoon "date" to the Edmonton Symphony. He really enjoyed this special attention and an outing with just the two of us. They were doing Disney Classic songs from the movies and played all the greats, including Aladdin, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Wyatt's current favorite soundtrack, Mary Poppins. I wasn't sure how it would go over or if he was a bit young for the symphony, but he loved it and was upset when it was over. He sat in his seat and was captivated listening to all the songs. He needed a few reminders about using his quiet voice as he seemed to feel the need to comment on every song. They even had a few as "sing a longs" inviting the audience to join in with the vocalists. Thankfully the Mary Poppins songs were sing a longs or else we would have been the only ones in the theatre belting them out. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!


Tate is doing great. He really is a sweet baby. No signs of reflux, milk protein sensitivity or colic, thank goodness. Most cries can be soothed simply by picking him up. He's a social guy and he loves to be held. I love when he falls asleep on my chest. It's one of the sweetest things in the world. He's sleeping pretty good at night, at least as good as you can expect at this age. He sleeps in about 3 1/2 to 4 hour stretches. The other night I went for sushi with a couple of girlfriends and took Tate with me. The girls passed him back and forth and oohed and awed over him and he remained awake most of dinner. We got home a little later than I had intended and I figured I'd be paying for it later but I put him to bed and he slept 5 hours straight. Thanks little guy! What a good baby...

It's not all rosy though. It is hard juggling the needs of three little ones and someone usually has to wait. They're not always patient about this so depending on who's doing the waiting, there could be a lot of whining or crying going on. I've learned to view it as background noise and it no longer frazzles me like it once did. I just calmly tell them I'll be there in a minute and finish attending to the child I'm currently with. Hopefully it will just teach them more patience.

It's also hard having more than one kid to attend to at night. My other two are mostly good sleepers but there is the occasional time where they'll wake because they had a bad dream or need a drink of water or something. Of course, it's never all at the same time so it makes for a very restless night of sleep for me. The other night Hadley got sick during Tate's "long" stretch of sleep. She came and announced she had "frowed up" in her bed and sure enough she had. By the time I changed her sheets and got her calmed, settled and back to sleep, Tate was up again. Then Wyatt was up coughing and needed a drink of water, then the dog needed to go out. Seriously? I think I only slept about 2 hours total that night. Tate often cries when I change his diaper at night (who wouldn't - it's cold to be unswaddled and exposed) and it sometimes wakes Hadley. She'll come in our room and ask "Is everything ok with da baby?" We send her back to bed, but I know this waking is not restful sleep. By the following afternoon, she is tired and crabby but she's so stubborn she refuses to nap. Sometimes I send them both to their room for quiet time and Hadley usually falls asleep. The other afternoon I couldn't find her and I eventually found her sound asleep in the front hall closet!

Did I mention Dayven now has the flu? Maybe the same one Hadley had. It's Family Day and he has the day off work, but instead of doing something fun, we're lying low while Dayven is camped out in the basement hopefully sleeping it off. We are running desperately low on food so it looks like I'll be taking all three kids to the grocery store with me today. Ahhhh, good times! Oh, this too shall pass, right? I just try to enjoy the sweet, funny moments in my day (there are plenty) and laugh about this other stuff. If you keep a sense of humor about it, it's all a lot more manageable.