Middle Child Syndrome

Its 7AM on a saturday…do you know where your children are??

Well, my ‘almost’ 2 year old is walking around the room looking for different things he can pull apart, break, put in his mouth, throw on the other side of the room…and worst of all…the different noises he can make by banging objects together!

Is it because he is the middle child, or is it because he is in his ‘terrible twos’ as they say…whatever it is…I WOULD LIKE IT TO STOP!

Maybe if he was quiet about it I wouldn’t mind, but he has to sing for us and he even laughs out loud at his own jokes! He’s really adorable but just wish that he would sleep a bit more…

This morning he opens his brother’s wardrobe door…well, even though the 3 year old was covered up on our bed with our blanket…he got out to scream at his brother…”DON’T EVER, DON’T EVER AGAIN”, and slams the doors shut. Now he’s back in our bed, lying on my pillow, my husband hugging him…so maybe in 10 years that can be me again…good thing time goes by so fast huh?! And where is the baby?

Right…the baby fell asleep while feeding and since we had 2 other children in the bed, I didn’t bother to wake him up to finish feeding…just dropped him back in the crib…

At least the baby (and his daddy) are still asleep!

Laundry…who’s turn is it anyways?

Each family has its own little ‘oddities’…my kids, they love the laundry room!

I think that it all started when I was on hospital bedrest with my second child…the first born was staying with my mom. She would take him into the laundry room with her when she had to wash his favourite stuffed toy. After a while it became like therapy…a distraction from the fact that I was in the hospital…

Today…both of them are OBSESSED with the laundry and my husband has to take them both down, or take one without letting the other one know about it… Yes, its that bad! Tonight they were both pulling on his pants and screaming at the top of their lungs for him to take them down…throwing tantrums to do the laundry? If only that trait lasted…

So, who was the lucky kid?

Well, daddy pretended that he had to use the bathroom…escaped out of the room and sneaked down by himself!

One room please…

Since my second son was born, we’ve had a co-sleeping arrangement…well, they have their own beds…but they’re in our room. The room is fairly big, so we have our bed, 2 kids bed, and the crib…makes for very interesting nights.

I was feeding the baby at 4am and my 3 year old son says to me “mummy, I want you to go to sleep! Close your eyes, and GO TO SLEEP!!” hmmmmm, sounds familiar?!? I just had to laugh.

While the eldest one likes to sleeps now, the “almost” 2 year old is another story…he is the last to go to sleep and the first to wake up. At 6AM he is in our bed trying to wake us up…actually trying to wake his dad up (which is fine with me!) He usually does not succeed, so next he tries me…that usually doesn’t work either, so he moves on to his brother’s bed…who gets irritated and tries to push him away…usually by this time I have to get up and intervene…but some mornings he even tries to wake up the baby!! So I open my eyes and there he is poking the baby’s feet and singing his name!!

This morning I put on the tv for them, hoping to keep them from running around the room…it worked…they were very quiet, especially the ‘almost’ 2 year old…until he came to the bed with his face shiny and said “mummy?” Shiny face?!? hmmm were is the Vaseline?? oh right, all over his face!!

Well, at least my husband is getting some sleep!

The Crying Game

If you have, or ever had a toddler, you’ve experienced the joy of a tantrum, the crying and screaming can make anyone want to jump off a bridge! Well, maybe just “think” about jumping off a bridge…

Newborns crying can sometimes give you a headache, but you think to yourself…it’s a small, helpless little baby, and they are usually pacified by just being held…(although I know that at 3AM you may be pondering the bridge thing) But a toddler crying is a whole different ball game…now they now how to talk…so now it goes something like this…”muuuuuuuummmy, daddddddddddyyyy, muuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmy, dadddddddddddyyyyyyyy” It feels like they are physically in your head…pounding on your skull…shaking up your brains…well, you get the picture.

Sanity check?

As long as they are some place safe, like a high chair, or a crib, where they cannot get into trouble, you can go into a different room and just let them cry for a bit…not only is crying good for the lungs, but it can also act as a natural sedative!! Ever notice after a nice long cry…they are usually so pacified, you can get the opportunity to hold them…(which is rare after they learn how to walk)

At least the baby is still asleep!

Toddlers and Preschoolers

More than one kid at home is not really that much harder to manage than having just the one…the thing with multiple children is that their interaction with each other can make anyone NUTS!!! I wonder how teachers do it. I think the secret there is that it’s not their own kids!?!?

Some days I can feed them both (and myself) a meal in less than 10 minutes…some days we can go on for more than an hour…

Why?

I sit in the middle of them, which is mostly a good position, but it also gives them an opportunity to play peekaboo with each other!! Which you would think is a good distraction for them…and I guess it is…IF you REALLY enjoy the sound of kids screaming and laughing at the top of their lungs on either side of your head!

Keeping my sanity…

They are both still sitting in front of their quarter-eaten food, playing with each other…and I am writing this…waiting for one (or both) of them to get hurt…and start crying…and THEN…maybe I can finish feeding…

At least the baby is still asleep!