You've Got Your Hands Full

You’ve got your hands full. It’s these five words that will haunt me for the rest of my life. Thank you, complete stranger, for pointing that out to me, now I know! And all this time I thought it was easy…

Now this probably happens to most mothers when they take their kids out in public. Someone (usually older than you) politely comments on what a load you have. “Wow, you sure have your hands full don’t ya?” Which roughly translates to mean, “You do know about birth control, right?” OK can I just get one thing straight? I wanted to have my kids close together, this was no accident.

It’s hard to remember what my life was like before I had kids, or even just 2 kids, or 1 for that matter! I’m pretty sure there was a time when it was just me and Brian. But that is just kind of a blur. I remember wondering how my life would change when I first got pregnant. I guess I never would have expected this 4 years later. I’m not even a ‘seasoned’ parent yet and I feel that I have already had to deal with more than my fair share of bodily fluids, sleepless nights and just plain exhaustion. I’d like to think that the older they get, the less of these types of things I will have to deal with. Realistically, that’s probably not the case. I do have to say one thing, though. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The good and fun parts definitely outweigh the bad.

I love that Ella is 3 now.  She's at that dress-up/grown-up stage and says the funniest things. Where does she come up with this stuff? Just this morning she wanted to put her puzzles away, but the drawer was too heavy for her. “It’s no use!” she said. She's so dramatic sometimes.  On the way home from church she was telling me about nursery. Then she said to herself gazing out the window, “I love church.”

Aiden is really starting to develop his sense of humor. I have to say, he is funny. He’s recently taken up refrigerating his toys.  Last week I found a dragonfly in the cheese drawer. Blowing it off as a ‘well that was weird’ moment, I didn’t address it. Yesterday I found a beach ball where the milk should be. This was no accident. When I asked him about it (I knew it was him, Ella would never!) his response was “Ha-Ha, coldy ball!”

I guess I could see why he would think this is funny. Toys are not supposed to be cold, and now it is…heh heh. I don’t know if he’s old enough to scheme against me and think to himself, ‘Just wait till Mom sees this, I can’t wait to see her face.’ I don’t know, maybe this was his intention. If that’s the case I guess I should plan on being pranked by him from now on. Great…

Riley is finally starting to crawl, except she’s just so lazy about it. She gets on her hands and knees and rocks for a bit, then takes a few crawls, and  collapses. It’s like her arms and legs just give out, too weak to support her own weight. Next, she kind of wobbles her body back and forth, wallowing around like a seal (which only gets her a few inches). Then she will stretch her arms out in front of her as far as she can reach (which doesn’t help). Once she figures out that this is getting her no where she gets back on her knees again. And then the process starts over. If she would just crawl the whole time, we could really avoid all this back and forth. It’s very entertaining to watch though! I love how non judgemental babies are.  All I have to do is walk into the room and she just grins so big. She’s got those little twinkle kind of eyes too. It’s nice to know that somebody loves you that much. It goes much deeper than just being her main source of food. Oh, baby smiles…they give you such a satisfying feeling, whether you are their parent or not. When a baby smiles at you, in that moment…bliss.

I will admit though, I am not one to savor the baby stage for long. I want it over and done with and for them to be as independent as possible. The whole ‘they grow up too fast’ doesn’t apply to me. They’re not growing up fast enough! I like them being little people that I can converse with. There are times that I think that having triplets wouldn’t be that bad…it’s the age gaps that make things difficult. Most days I treat Ella and Aiden as if they were twins. I may stay busy but no, I do not have my hands full. I have my hands exactly where I want them. I stay home with my kids, I teach them, I play with them and most importantly I love them.