Pros & Cons

PROS	CONS
My kids are pretty good eaters, and will usually try new things when gently prompted (unless it looks totally vomitrocious).	They’re hungry all. the. time. I can’t keep enough snacks in the house, let alone milk.  If I hear “Can I just have another snack?” or “But I’m huuuuuuungrrrrry!” one more time, I might throw the fridge at someone.
The boys know how to say please and thank you.	I often have to remind the boys that they know how to say please and thank you. Elly doesn’t know how to say please or thank you, so she screams at us until we give her what she wants and then just grunts once satisfied.
They all go to bed fairly easily and are usually sleep by 7:30pm	They all wake up fairly easily and are usually in my bed at about 6:00am
Owen and William are very social and have lots of friends.  Their favorite thing to do right now is hang out with their friends in the school playground for about an hour after school. This means I get to hang out with the other parents, many of whom are wonderful people, who give good chat and great advice.  All the other mums dote on Elly and will happily walk her around the playground or take her down the slide when I need a break.	Sometimes the play gets a little rough in the schoolyard – William in particular has had a tough time keeping his hands to himself lately, leading to some time outs and much frustration on both our parts as he repeats certain behaviours over and over again and we end up cutting our playtime short.  When do they start learning from their mistakes again?  Since I still haven’t mastered that one, maybe this is an unfair question. Elliot, seeing her brothers racing around, wants to do the same thing.  But alas, Little Legs, she’s not quite big enough yet and its not always safe for her to try to climb up the slide when fifteen other children are throwing themselves down it.  Cue screaming fit and writhing child in my arms.
All three children are very verbose in their own way.  I always know what Will and Owen are thinking, because they tell me their train of thought in a kind of poetic stream of conciousness narrative. (Both boys still say “y” for the “l” sound, which I just yuv.  I’ll miss it when its gone). El chats quite a bit too and uses grunting and sign language to tell me what she sees around her.  ‘Bird”, “Squirrel”, “Dog” and “Airplane” are very popular signs and get used constantly.	They never stop talking at me.  My ears hurt.
The boys get plenty of exercise.	They’re so rough!  Why do boys have to wrestle so much?  Why can’t they understand that when one yells, “STOP! You’re hurting me!” that generally means cease and desist?  Do I need to get restraining orders issued?
Elly is a little walking machine! So cute the way she waddles around with her tummy sticking out and her arms in the air for balance.  She looks so proud of herself.	She isn’t happy in her stroller anymore, which means trips to the mall are now a minefield (“Don’t touch!” “Put it back!” “Don’t eat that off the floor!”) or a wrestling match between mother and daughter ‘You. Will. Go. In. The. Stroller!” “That’s what you think, ma!  See how I writhe and contort so you can’t put the straps on?  See how I arch my back just so?”  Why is she stronger than me?
We’re fortunate to be able to afford some great toys for the kids to play with and have been given some really wonderful presents from generous friends.	There are toys everywhere!  Why doesn’t anyone know how to tidy up after themselves?  Why does Elliot Anne (you know she’s in trouble now, the middle name came out) insist on opening the cupboards and pulling everything out two seconds after I have finally managed to shove it all in?  Why, with all our beautiful wooden and educational toys, do the boys gravitate to the crappy plastic toys from McDonalds?
My twins are extremely creative.	William drew on the walls this weekend.  Owen makes up songs about poop and private parts.
The boys are toilet trained – hurray, no more poopy diapers only Elly’s poopy diapers to deal with!	Little boys are allergic to toilet paper, washing hands and flushing toilets.
All three of my kids give the best cuddles and kisses.	N/A

 

Into EVERYTHING!

A Day In The Life

6:02am - small boy awakens me with nudge in the ribs, asks if he can come into bed.  Blearily glance at time, mumble acquiescence.

6:03am - second small boy enters room, demands to know why brother is in HIS spot.  Loud verbal exchange between small boys, ensued by growling from mother.  Cue extra small girl, who has been thus far asleep on my head, to start crying.

6:15am - no longer able to ignore Elly's frantic hand signals and whining, I stumble down to the kitchen and get her a bottle of milk.  Hand it over to Mark, along with two small bowls of dry cheerios to be scattered about the bed by the boys rather than ingested as recommended by nutritionists and parents alike.

6:17am - hop into shower.  Ahhhhh, alone time.  No one to bother me for a whole three minu- "yes, you can come in to pee, Owen.  Wash your hands.  I said, wash your hands!"

6:30am - dressed for the day, hair still wet.  Dash out the door to move the cars out of the driveway and onto the street to make room for stone and wood chips delivery, expected anytime between 7am and 1pm. 

6:38am - take sobbing Elly from daddy's arms.  Apparently mummy dashing out with car keys is not what she wanted to see first thing in the morning.  Get kids cereal on the table, mix up a batch of muffins & shove them in the oven, eat some toast, check news on laptop.

7:10am - change Elly's very stinky diaper, let her play with bathroom cupboards as I dry my hair.  "careful, sweetie, don't trap your fing-ooooh!  Ouch!  You're okay, you're okay, its okay...sigh."

7:30 - take muffins out of oven to cool.  Back upstairs to brush teeth and floss really, really well. 

7:38 - distract Elly with Daddy's toast, slip out the front door.

8:06am - lie back in dentist chair with bizarre and rather claustrophobia-inducing tarp contraption attached to my mouth, try to ignore signs of imminent panic attack as dentist drills out four cavities on right side of mouth.  Wonder what would happen if I suddenly started flailing my arms and legs about like a maniac.  Decide against it and stare up at overhead light and note interesting frog-like patterns until heart stops pounding. 

9:20am - arrive home with sore jaw and right side of face prickling as numbing wears off.  Mutter to myself about dentist's heavy-handedness.  Swear never to eat chocolate again if that will mean no more fillings.  Rejoice that Mark managed to put Elly down for her nap and that boys are playing quietly.  Hear dump truck arriving with stone and say silent prayer that it doesn't wake Her Ladyship up.  Eat a chocolate easter egg.

10:00am - make a pitcher of Jamie Oliver's mint strawberry slushie and another of lemonade for Mark, Jon and Paul who are working in backyard to get playstructure finished.  They have several tonnes of drainage stone and mulch to move from the driveway to the backyard, so anything I can do to make their work easier, ie nice drinks and muffins, kids out of the way, etc, I will do.

10:40 - dress Elly for the day, get boys into hats, coats, shoes, gather essential items for swimming lesson, locate snack, cell phone, car keys and anything else I can carry in one hand whilst balancing Elly on the other side.  Get everyone in the car and over to the park.

11:00am - meet Amber, Abby and Caleb in the park near the pool.  Attempt (and ultimately fail) to keep Elly from eating the sand in the sandbox.  Soak up the sunshine and chat with my bud as the kids play (fairly) nicely together.

11:45am - hustle my kids over to the pool.  Lose one of Elly's adorable new rainboots in the process.  Call Amber and ask if she can look to see if its in the park. Get boys changed and out to the pool with only slightly raised voice. 

12:16pm -  wrangle Elly on my lap and attempt to stop her from chucking her soother repeatedly onto the dirty floor.  Eventually give up and pocket it, only to have her slap me for my temerity at ending her game.   Cheer as Will and Owen swim by themselves for the first time.

12:31pm - attempt to assist boys in getting dried off in cramped changeroom, with wriggly baby who wants dirty soother from my pocket and/or to get down onto wet floor and wallow in the filth.  Somehow manage to contain her and get boys dressed without crying or yelling.  Hate this part of swmming lessons.

12:45pm - lost boot is next to our car! Hurray!  Drive home happy that adorable boot is not lost forever.  Consider various ways to keep it on daughter's foot in the future. Duct tape?  Elastics?  Staples?

1:00pm - wow, majorly impressed with worker guys (aka Jon, Paul and Mark) and how much they've accomplished since we left.  Reward them with hot dogs, beer and potato chips.   Send them back out to do more work.

1:40pm - boys off to play with their buddy Wyatt, so house is quiet for Elly's nap.  Wish I could crawl in with her.  Instead, make coffee for slaves workers and lovely cup of tea for myself.  Wonder if it would be cruel to sit in sunshine as Jon hefts yet another wheelbarrow load of mulch into backyard.  Decide against it and clean kitchen instead.

2:00pm - drive over to nursery to pick more landscaping fabric for Mark.  Crank radio loud and enjoy being in the car on my own for a change. 

2:30pm - Note that Mark has put ladder up on playstructure.  Hesitate for about one minute before climbing up and going down the slide.  Weeeeeeeee!

3:30pm - El wakes up from nice nap (hurray!) and we join the boys at Wyatt's house.  Chat with his lovely mother Deitre as boys sword fight around us and Elly tries to decide if she likes or is afraid of their dog. 

4:30pm - call Mark to see if its okay for us to come home and play in the backyard.  It is and he says the playstructure is kid-ready so we all head over.  Much, much happiness on the part of small boys ensues.

6:10pm - make curry and rice for dinner, keep Elly happy by plonking her in high chair and playing sesame street videos on laptop for her.  Remember how not so long ago I did the same thing for the boys. 

6:30pm - sit down to eat as a family.  Breathe a sigh of relief when both boys tell me "Dis is delicious, mummy!  Can we have dis every night?" Since dinner-acceptance from the kids is always such a crapshoot, any form of praise and/or eating of food is wonderful.  Any utterance of "vomitrocious" is not.

7:15pm - bedtime routine.  Wonder yet again why it has to involve so much coercion each night.   Is it really that awful to get jammies on and brush teeth? Give Elly her bottle in her room to the sound of Mark reading bedtime stories to her brothers down the hall. 

7:45pm - creep down the stairs so as not to wake three snoring kids. 

8:30pm - exhausted.  Reading in bed.

8:45pm - in Elly's room, shushing her back to sleep.

9:30pm - lights out.  So tired.  Looking forward to sleep.

11:30pm  - in Elly's room, shushing her back to sleep. 

2:00am - in Elly's room, shushing her back to  sleep.

2:35am - in Elly's room, shushing her back to - oh forget it, you can come into our bed, you little tyrrant.

6:05am - small boy awakens me with nudge in the ribs, asks if he can come into bed.  Blearily glance at time, mumble acquiescence.