Life with three kids

I never realized before having kids that three kids is kind of a LOT OF KIDS. Especially when they are all under five and home with you full time. It's a demanding group when you are taking care of three small people all the time. There is significantly less downtime for me now--like there always is when you're on a newborn schedule. Somebody is always needing something.

But the funny thing is, I think this has been the easiest transition yet. Every time I have a baby, I worry the whole pregnancy how hard it is going to be after having the baby, but it's never as bad as I imagine it. So far, I think I had the hardest time with Dane as a baby, since it was a huge shock that I all of a sudden went from all of my time being my own to having all of that freedom taken away from me. And with Graham and Lucy, it wasn't a surprise at all. I knew what to expect and just had to have my abilities stretched slightly.

I have been really happy ever since Lucy was born. It's the weirdest thing--I've been just on cloud 9 this whole time. Obviously, I have had lots, LOTS of moments when I've lost my temper or been stressed beyond belief. But I have not had a single day when I have been super unhappy and impatient all day, where I felt like I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE and I need to escape the second Tommy gets home. I have had many, many of those days as a mom, but not since adding a third kid. I think 95% of it is that Lucy doesn't scream and cry--hardly at all. The screaming is what generally pushes me over the edge--and there hasn't been hardly of it since she was born. (Maybe we should take that as a sign we should be done with having kids with the world's nicest baby, but I think we are suckers for punishment. Maybe the rest of ours will be as nice as Lucy too??)

I feel EXTREMELY lucky this time around and I feel like this has been a great stage. I know this will shift, that sometime someone will go into a more difficult stage that involves more tantrums and screaming (Graham? Terrible twos?) but these last few months have been so wonderful for me.

And can you blame me? Just look at these three:

COULD THEY BE ANY CUTER? I don't think so. I sure love them. And I'm so glad my job is to be home and take care of them.