Hot Mess Mama

I remember writing the previous blog post.  It was after a very crazy nap time routine that was not working out.  I remember sitting on the floor next to my toddlers door, typing away, while taking breaks to peak under the door and (with buisness in my voice) tell my daughter to get back in her bed and watching her feet scamper across the floor and disappear up onto the bed. 

What seemed like frustrated-hair-pulling moments at the time now make me smile that I used to be so naive as to believe I could make my daughter take a nap. Hah! NOPE. 

My third baby has joined our family and I smile when I remember my Grandpas advice to my parents, "It's not about the quantity, but the quality."  Our newest addition really is the sweetest thing, but boy do I feel overwhelmed. When I had our third, I had heard from EVERYONE that it would be my hardest.  Sometimes I wonder if they had said that about the fourth baby, would I really have felt that three was a difficult adjustment?  At that time, I had three children, ages three-and-under.  It was a mad house of just trying to keep our youngest from getting squished or sat on.  On top of protecting our youngest from her overly-loving siblings, I had the house to keep on top of, meals to make, laundry, laundry, and more laundry AND pressure from myself and others to "remember to take time for yourself"--and who knows why, I didn't even know what I would do for "me-time" if I had it. . . besides eat frozen cookies and sleep. 

But here I am, our youngest is now one-years-old and I am still breathing and functioning.  Somehow I manage to keep getting through each day, with all three little ones still breathing, fed and mostly clean.  I still haven't figure out the routine that works best for us, and probably never will because by the time I think I have it down, one of the little munchkins throws a curve ball and decides to take a developmental leap that changes everything.  I heard it referred to as, "finding the new normal, " which actually means, "understanding that your new normal will never be normal, regular, or predictable."

It's crazy, I love it. I feel like a hot mess but wouldn't change a thing.