4 kids...2 and under

Really is CRAZY! There's just no other way to describe what goes on at our house...it's loud, it's wild, it's funny, it's full of tears, laughter, basketfuls of dirty laundry, spit up, snotty noses and everyone needing their butt wiped at the same time and that's only in the first 5 minutes of the day!

Today at the gym I was taking a shower and I overheard two ladies comparing the ages of their kids and almost bragging about how many they'd had in how many years and all that they'd survived...it made me chuckle at some of their crazy storeis! :)(and really laugh out loud at what they thought was a lot of kids in a few years...it's all about perspective, isn't it?!) But, it really made me think that I should really be documenting some of the craziness over here, because at some point it's going to be super funny and my kids are going to enjoy hearing about it...but, I'm afraid that I'll forget, in my sleep deprived 1/2 working brain I seem to have a hard time remembering that I actually have to let the dog back in after I let her out to go pee, or to take all my kids with me when I go somewhere...somedays I can barely remember what my kids names are- I called Jackson Jason the other day...I named the kid and have called him Jackson for 16 months, now, but apparently remembering his name is just too much to expect out of my sleep deprived brain :) Actually, the worst was when I "switched" the girls and all day long called them by the wrong name- I didn't even realize it until it was time to put them to bed and "Maelle" didn't like sleeping on her tummy, like she usually does and then I realized that the one I thought was Maelle did have her toenails painted...oops!

One of the craziest days that we've had around here was last Friday when Hailey was so sick and I was home alone, I was feeding the girls and Hailey started to throw up and I started to set the girls down to help her, but it became increasingly urgent that I get myself quickly disengaged as Jackson found the bottle of baby tylenol and proceeded to expertly open the child safe lock on the top and spill a whole bottle of little tablets all over the floor and then try to eat them...I sprang into action, just about dumping the girls off my lap and scrambling to pick up the tablets before he got too many of them (he's really quick), but in my haste I didn't realize that I left one of the girls(honestly, I can't even remember, anymore which one it was) a little too close to the edge of the ottoman and in her anger she managed to roll just enough to propel herself off...so, I had one crying, puking girl, one baby who fell off the couch and one little man who was trying to commit suicide by tylenol! by the time I got the tylenol cleaned up, the baby picked up, Hailey cleaned up and was able to sit down and finish nursing (about a half hour later) I realized that one of the main reasons I may not have had the baby blues this time around is that I'm, honestly, too busy to cry! I don't have the time to sit and feel sorry for myself or sit and even think about myself, because it's go, go, go- give 110% until I fall exhausted into bed at night and at that point I'm just way too tired to think! :) (a blessing in disguise?? could be, as one of my biggest worries was post-pardum depression)

why is it that 1 Dad can watch 3 little girls and 1 Mom can barely keep up with 1 little boy?? Our little Jack has been running circles around me, lately! It's definitely a good thing that he's so cute, otherwise he might not have even made it through today! ;) (or yesterday, or the day before...) The other day I found something in his mouth, removed it and still had a hard time figuring out what it was...that is, until Hailey very helpfully informed me that it was dog food and he really liked it!! Yikes! Really- how long had he been eating this stuff?? Apparently he felt that if Allie was going to do him such a great favor in eating all the food that he didn't want- he was going to help her out by eating the food that she didn't want! :)
Yesterday we went to try and get some pictures taken- mostly for Hailey's 3rd birthday party, but I figured if I was going to go through all the trouble of getting all the kids there I wanted to get a picture of all 4 of them...I think we may have gotten one that is 1/2 way decent and it took us an entire hour and lots and lots of coaxing from my mom, the photographer and I! In fact, we had finally gotten both of the babies calmed down, Hailey and Jack in position and all was going well...that is, until Jackson decided to drop his basketball (the bribery we used to get him to sit down for the picture) on Maysen's head and we had to start all over again...good thing I have such a great and patient friend who takes photos! :) Speaking of time consuming things...today we decided to capitalize on the warm weather by taking a little walk! We started getting ready to go at 11:30 and we finally made it out the door to try and get the kids in the stroller at 12 and managed to get the stroller put together and all the kids in it by 12:30! (yup, you do the math- that's an entire hour to just take a little 1/2 hour walk- doesn't really seem worth it, does it??)
I think one of the best "stories" that I have is from Monday morning at the gym...once again it took me an entire 1/2 hour and a lot of sweat and hard work to get the kids in the car and ready to go (but, it was TOTALLY worth it to get a good work out in and spend some time alone), I finally got all 4 kids wrangled into the gym and I went to swipe my card to sign in and as I turned my back I heard Jackson screaming bloody murder, turned around and saw that a lady had literally run him over without even a backwards glance (apparently she was in a huge hurry to get to the treadmill...)! Before I could even debate about saying anything to her, Hailey piped up and said, "That my brother. You hurt him. You need be nice and say sorry!" I'm pretty sure that I should have reprimanded Hailey for speaking so "naughtily" to an adult, but I was actually fairly proud of her for sticking up for her little brother- and, I'm sure that this lady learned her lesson, because Hailey is soooo incredibly loud and I think that every single person in the whole gym heard her- or maybe they just heard Jackson crying, but whichever it was we all created quite the scene!