first post-oh the joys of 3

I have been meaning to get going on this, but there is always something else of more importance, so it has gotten shoved aside. I just kind of wanted to print my ramblings somewhere, and now others have the joy of reading it too!

Life has gotten so unbelieveably busy-busier than I ever imagined since my little guy was born. Sure, when you have your first child your life changes dramatically, no more going where you want when you want, there is someone else that needs to be put first etc. But really, lets face it, having one kid is a minimal disruption-it is still easy to head out and go places-just slightly different places-than before you had children. When we had our second, she was such as easygoing kid that going from one to two was a breeze. We travelled, we ate out, even going back to work wasn't such a big deal, I just went down to a 0.8 instead. The girls were little, outside committents were just easier then. Sure they had soccer and swimming, but it was little kid stuff, parental involvement at that age is merely watching them. Even when my eldest started JK it was ok-they didn't have homework-it was only every other day, the younger one went to the neighbours for daycare-which she totally loved since she could play with her best friend Tristin. SK for my oldest was a little more involved-still only every other day, but there was homework. Yes, homework in kindergarten. They had to do a presentation and readings-and it was 100% french. So more work for mommy! My work at this point was in people's homes, but I had an office in my house and a main office, so I would take on-call and send faxes/receive on-line case info right from my home, so I was very flexible. It is not easy to talk someone through a pump problem with a toddler crashing around though! But we sat there so many times, my husband and I saying 2 is great-lets leave it at 2!So what happened?

Then came Josh-a little of a surprise! Work was cruising along, Dave was at college full time and we had the best neighbourhood. I could have stayed there(if we moved to a bigger house!) forever. I loved the school-great cirriculum-I had even cared for the previous prinicpal's husband before he died. We had our whole lives invested there. My pregnancy was like the others, nothing major happened, but I gained 10 lbs more than with the girls. Being pregant with two young kids was still not a big deal-we travelled still(Quebec city was awesome-but I could not go on the waterslides at Valcartier!). Even right when Josh was born it was a change but, it didn't really change until he got a bit bigger....

Suddenly there was this other person, with definite opinions, not wanting to help with Amelia's truckloads of homework, Lauryn's reading and crafts, or sit through hours(and I mean hours)of gymnastics. This aside from the fact that we fished our house, sold it, moved across country(the trip through the states-he was actually very good-all the tourist stops helped!), and suddenly were thrown into such a busy schedule I have had to hold off working. All of a sudden, people who kept quiet before were saying-"I found three hard-don't you?" I wish these people had not kept so quiet-some warning would have been nice! But how DO you prepare? Run 3 miles with a baby under your arm? Read books(and this I really doubt!)? I think you also don't plan for having to do volunteer hours at gymnastics and sell stuff for them and your school either. Everyone wants money for this and that-we spent abotu $2500 on activities last year-it should double this year-and Josh is too little for activities! But that aside, 3 is busy. Josh does not always enjoy my plans to do grocery shopping and endelss food prep for the week either. I can't even explain it sometimes, the constant go. I make 3 trips to the school daily, play with Josh, bake, cook-normal stuff. But somehow dividing my attention between three kids and my husband takes all of me. I run when the kids are in bed(thank God for my treadmill!), and that is my "me" time. I do get together with other friends nearby, who also are home with kids, which definitely is a good stress relief!

I guess I cannot explain it-you have to live it.I love it, don't get me wrong.I would not trade my life for anything. It is just wild! Kids now out number adults in our household-maybe this is the issue. I can divide my attention in two, no prob, but three ways is challenging. We are zoo crew...I don't even want to think about what 4 will be like!