Who’s the fairest.

Eenie Meenie Mynee Mo; which kid… attention… should I show…

Kids respond really well to routines, and it actually helps keeps parents sane as well. I have managed to get the older 2 kids into a bit of a routine now, which is nice… its no longer a battle to get them to eat or to sleep etc, they just know what “time” it is.

But, the not-so-great part about it is that my routine really does not allow me any one on one time with any of them. In the past few days I am finding myself going through an internal struggle… which kids deserves my attention the most… The eldest one can speak and understand and remember every detail of every event… he’s starting school soon, and is the most impressionable at the moment… does it mean that he should get most of my attention?

The baby has little memory, does not understand much, and can’t complain in a language that I can understand… should I not hold him unless he’s feeding or crying…

The middle one, who is fast approaching the dreaded “terrible twos”, is hard to manage at this stage in his development… craving attention, always seems like he’s left out… we refer to him as the drama queen… can I really focus on him, with the special needs of a newborn, and the demands of a preschooler…

At least my husband is relatively low maintenance!

Family, Back Home.

It took us 5 hours to get home… the kids watched a movie, slept, then got up on the one stop we made to eat lunch and stretch, then they slept again until we got home… At least that is how I honestly thought the ride would be…

They took turns crying…

They could not agree on what to watch… (we don’t normally have a tv in our van, and I am opposed to this idea, but this was a rented van… so I let then watch… The eldest one wanted it off when he was sleepy, and the middle one wanted to watch care bears!)

They didn’t want to eat lunch…

They slept for about 10 mins each… (and at different times)

The could not agree on what songs they wanted either…

And when I say ”they could not agree”, I really mean that ”they could not stop SCREAMING until we stopped the thing”!

They fell asleep just 5 minutes before we got home, at 5:30PM… Started crying as we took them into the house… We gave them milk and thought that they would sleep…

9:30PM… kids laughing and running around the room…

Family, Still here…

We are leaving the foreign land tomorrow… I cannot wait!

Now, my husband and I have developed a sinus infection… Making the situation that much worse! But, on the other hand, I think that at least 2 of my kids have returned…

The middle one is still acting up alot… Every 5 minutes during the night he wakes up and comes into our bed and then cries because he does not have enough space… My sister was right when she said that kids are just not very smart!

Can’t live with them… can’t give them sedatives!

At least he’s cute, otherwise I might be tempted to give him back…

Sleep or not to sleep

Its Day 2 here in the foreign land…time is going slowly…more time to ‘enjoy’ the creatures I guess… So this morning I woke up just as my husband was leaving and apparently the kids had already been up for more than half hour…not good…they already had a chance to get out of their sleepiness and were ready for action! Before I even had a chance to open my eyes properly, I had to take the eldest one to the toilet, then while he was in there put the milk bottles to heat up, (in a bottle warmer, one at a time…since I don’t use a microwave anymore) meanwhile the middle one was screaming for milk while holding on to my shirt… He follows me into the bathroom where my other darling son informs that he pee peed all over his legs and pants, because…he wanted to…and he sang about it in his song…so he told me he was doing it!!!!! Ahhhhhhh

Put them both on the couch to drink milk…do a diaper change for the middle one…leave them there watching tv. Use the bathroom…do diaper change for the youngest one…oh, they are finished drinking milk… Hope that they stay out of trouble while I feed the baby… The middle one pooped…change that…eldest one is talking back to me…threaten him with punishment…he’s crying on the bed…give the middle one cereal and a spoon (although I know he’ll only make a mess)…baby’s starting to cry…all within half an hour of waking up!

What Kids?

We’re on the road…AGAIN! My husband is on another business trip, so here we are for the week again…this time with all 3 kids. I don’t feel guilty this time, but I do feel regretful… I regret not leaving the middle one behind!

The crying just has not stop with these little creatures… (do I mean kids? No, these are not “my” kids… they were switched with some little aliens while I slept… ) At any given moment in the past couple days at least one of them is crying or fussing…or making us frustrated for some other reason… (good thing it was the weekend, so I wasn’t alone!)

I’ve developed a strategy…pretend that the baby is fussing alot more than he is so that I can hold him…and then send my husband to deal with the other 2!! But Alas, its Monday… and my evil plan has to come to an end… as I sit here and type… one kid on my lap, another one crying in the playpen, and the other asking to go back home!

Note to the aliens that stole my kids… PLEASE return them!!