Yet Another Stunning Accomplishment

Today, for the first time in six months, I ran errands on a weekday.  Yes, I took all three kids shopping to actual stores, and not just to playgroup or a drive-through.

I am awesome.

I Don’t Mean To Brag…

…but I can get myself and all three kids out of the house in under 4 hours.  Impressive, no?  Here’s my secret formula, so that you can all benefit from my technique.  (NB: it helps to have infant twins and a toddler, but if you don’t, you can try substituting pets or plants or your husband or whatever.)

6:30 or 7 a.m.: First child usually wakes up.  They take turns, but it IS  sure thing that whoever wakes up will need to use the potty and/or have his/her diaper changed.  By the time one is all cleaned up and dressed, you can bet that the others will be awake and needing the same treatment.

8:00: Everyone (except me) is clean and dressed.  I toss Raisin a banana to stave off starvation while I give Orange and Apple some pureed fruit or baby cereal.  Then I try to distract the twins with toys so Raisin and I can eat.  I usually end up scarfing down my food so that I can go nurse the babies as Raisin finishes her breakfast.

9:00: Orange and Apple fall asleep.  If I’m really lucky, they both actually fall asleep around the same time.  I dash around, starting loads of laundry, distracting Raisin, and trying to take a shower, until they wake up.

10:00: Apple’s awake, but Orange is still sleeping.  Raisin and Apple get sunscreened, etc.  Orange wakes up and we go through it all again.

It’s around 10:30 or so when I start to think that we are never going to be able to leave the house.  As soon as I get one kid settled, another starts crying, or Raisin takes off all her clothes to go potty and then wants different clothes and also maybe her sunglasses, which I cannot find.

But somehow, gradually, the three kids and all their gear make it out to the stroller or the van, and off we go.

Simple, huh?  4 hours’ work, and maybe an hour and a half at the park before everybody’s hungry again.

At least it wears them all out.

I’m Not Dead

Last night, for the first time in about a week, I slept for more than 2 hours in a row.  Consequently, I vaguely resemble a human being today and have therefore decided to brave some contact with the outside world.

Hello, outside world!  How have you been?  Has anything interesting or exciting happened while I have been in this fog?

Also — a topic for discussion.  I have started to feel a little out of place among the moms in the playgroup we attend.  Obviously, we’re all stay-home parents, but the others seem more committed (for lack of a better word) than I am.

For me, the decision to stay home was mostly a practical one.  Paying for daycare for three kids under the age of three, let alone finding a suitable daycare with room for two newborns at the same time (or trying to shuttle the kids to two or three different places) just wasn’t reasonable.  So I quit my job.  It’s not that I don’t enjoy spending time with my kids, or that I’m not grateful for the opportunity to do it.  But under other circumstances, I would’ve hired a nanny or put them in daycare, and I’d be OK with that, too.

So, I don’t know quite what to say* when I hear things like, “I wonder sometimes if so-and-so’s kids are so ‘easy’ because she put them in daycare and went back to work so early.  They never had anyone doting on them 24-7, so maybe they’ve learned to be more easy-going….  Of course, you’d never WANT that.”

You wouldn’t?  I don’t get it.  Isn’t it good for their family that going back to work was successful for them?  And if you see some sign that your own kids are being over-mommied, then that’s to do with you, not anyone else, yes?

OK, discuss among yourselves.

*I don’t really feel the need to SAY anything.  These are all good women and good moms.  I just find the difference in perspective interesting.

Playing Nuk-y

Apple and Orange love their pacifiers.  L-O-V-E.  And I whole-heartedly support that, right now at least, because Raisin would never take a Nuk, and I never knew how wonderful it could be to calm a baby simply by sticking something other than my boob in its mouth.

I could use some advice from other pacifier-wielding parents, though.  The twins aren’t coordinated enough yet to put the Nuks back in their mouths if they fall out.  But sometimes they wake up, and all they really want is to have the thing back.  When that happens once during naptime, I gamely plug them back up.  When it happens three times (per kid) during the night, I’m not so much of a fan.

Is there a magic pacifier strategy that I’m missing?