3 Under 5

We have made it and we are making it. We being me, Scott and our newly expanded brood. Doing the math, I realized I had 3 kids in 4 years (May 2008 to June 2012). Holy smokes!!! Danica is 3 weeks old and we are pretty smitten still. Tyler adores her. Daily he talks about how cute she is and how wonderful. He likes to hold her and "pet" her, ie touch her tummy or head or arms. Travis is coming around too. He will bring her pacifier to her and loves to pat her head and says "hiiii" to her in this incredibly sweet soft voice. Love my boys with my girl!

But I will be honest and say that having three little ones at these ages is really no joke. It is a lot right now. I do have help from our sitter a couple mornings a week (sort of a mother's helper role) and Scott helps out big time when he isn't working. Friends and family have been so kind and generous with bringing meals and offering assistance. But the day in day out is a bit overwhelming at times. Mostly because of course at this point I have to feed Danica very frequently. And the boys being active, happy boys, want to get out and do stuff. It's hard. I'm afraid their summer kind of sucks this year. We are still doing tons of sprinkler time, Popsicles, walks, and outdoor play but we hardly leave the house. To be honest I haven't figured out how I will take all three of them anywhere in the near future. I think it will involve baby wearing, which is fine, but it still seems like a monumental undertaking. So for now I try to keep the kids entertained at home. We watch our fair share of tv. We have done some art and crafts. We do baking every other week. (they love this!) I've setup a whiteboard calendar and am trying to make a schedule for us a week at a time so I can tell Tyler what we will be doing and so I can stay on task. However that works...

I know several of my readers have 3 or more kids. If you have any tips or insights for managing with 3 little ones I'd love to hear them! We aren't going to have the mother's helper forever and I will be more on my own again. I think I am one of those "I can do it myself!" people and I really want to feel like I can successfully manage 3 kids and our home and lives. I see it as not only my life and my loves, but my job as a stay at home mom too. So please share 'em if you got 'em! And I will share this delicious photo of Ty with Danica.

Finally, it's 3:45 in the morning so this will be a little test to see if I can blog coherently in the wee hours.