Monday, May 18, 2009

Family of Five


One plus one is two.

Two plus one is sooooooooo much more than three!!!

We've been warned about the third child being the big adjustment, and I have always held my ground that child # one was much more of an adjustment. However, after several weeks like last week, I have considered that it may be true- adding child #3 may be the whopper!

Although I did not have an extensive "to do" list last week, there were just too many times where I found myself asking "since when did I become my mom?" I grew up in a family of 7 kids and always wondered why the house was such a mess and my mom dressed so sloppy and she never got her glasses fixed (she had to balance them on her nose when she drove us to school, because she never found time to go in and get a new pair). Now I get it. The poor woman had 7 kids to care for and her husband worked 2 jobs- which meant she was basically on her own from sun up to sun down.

Last week I got very little sleep. Most of the days I just threw on sweats and pulled my hair back in an elastic. One day that stands out is when I decided to be a good mommy and get my boy all the T ball supplies he needs to be a successful T ball champ. It all started when he was yanked out of practice early by this same good mommy (who was very frustrated at the time). After chilling out about his less than enthusiastic performance at practice, I decided we were going to put in the time and help this boy feel like a champ at T Ball. So to Academy we go.

I got the kids out of the car, strapped baby Anna into her baby bjourn, and in we went. Then we were greeted by Stu, the realtor who sold us our home. Only he was now working as a greeter at Academy, and I greeted him without thinking- actually I guess I was thinking- only I was thinking out loud. I'm too embarrassed to write what I said, and when I told Dave about it, he was embarrassed just hearing about it. Stu is a great guy and I hope he didn't take offense to a tired mom who lost a few brain cells during pregnancy and is still hoping to get them back.

Anyway, we found the isle we needed and started to look T ball stuff. One of the workers approached us just as Josh grabbed the back of his shorts and said, "ughhh mommy, I think I have a problem!" Oh no- I knew this wasnt good, so we rushed to the bathroom and fixed "the problem". This was a first and as I was cleaning things up- I kept thinking that this is something that happens to one of "those" families. We usually have things under control- at least in public- unlike "those" families. Anyway, we managed and went back out to shop. Yep, we should have gone home and called it a day, but who knows when I would get time to go back up there, so we continued our shopping. By the end of our Academy trip, the kids were acting crazy, I had a headache, Anna was crying, we probably stunk, but we got our T ball stuff and made it home! Ahhhh home. Perfectly clean and dinner was in the oven- oops, I mean it was a mess and I hadn't even thought about dinner. Again, I ask myself: "Since when did I become my mom?"

How long will this last? I only have 3 kids- I should be able to manage them and not become my mom, right? I'm sure Dave is hoping it is just a phase, but for now I am just agreeing that three is sooooooo much more than two!