Mother's Day Journal

So i had to write a little bit about mother's day and life with 3. First, mother's day was so sweet! I woke up to a beautiful breakfast by Stephen. Then off to church and subway after that. Followed by naps and a great supper with cake and flowers. The boys made me cards that are sweet and it was a fun day! People ask how things are going with 3 now. It is hard to describe - there are moments of pure bliss! A cooing, happy baby in my arms, with 2 boys happily playing together. Doesn't get much better than that! Then, there are plenty of moments of, um, unbliss??!! Elsie's crying because she is hungry/tired, Jack is throwing a tantrum because i am holding Elsie and not him, and Andrew is having meltdown because he wanted put on his clothes a certain way without help - and all of this at the same time! My brother, who has 5 apparently says these are "triage moments". Something i can defintely relate to as a nurse! Or Andrew needs help in the bathroom, Jack is roaming the house and i need to find a place to set Elsie down that Jack can't reach her and keep Jack from playing in the toilet (even the crib/pack-n-play make me a bit nervous to leave her there with Jack unsupervised!). Or trying to do any sort of cooking is so hard - even when Stephen is home usually all 3 of them want me when it is time to cook! My usual goals for the day are something like this: do 1 load of laundry, do 1 load of dishes in the dishwasher, and make something edible that fills us! If i can do those things and keep the kids safe and diapered then it is a pretty good day! Most days are a good 14+ hours long, then the rest of it is night duty with Elsie. So my biggest challenge is just having enough physical energy to get through the day. I am always wishing for more. Really though, i am so blessed by how good my kids are at sleeping! Andrew goes down for 1 1/2 hours of "quiet" time, Jack usually naps 2-3 hours, and Elsie is such a easy baby i can usually lay down with her, give her a pacifier and she snuggles up with me and sleeps when i need to rest! Going to an outing at least once a week has been so good! I am thankful the boys are still in the "stay close to mommy" stage because it makes going places that much easier! I usually put Elsie in the wrap and hold each boys hand. And i am pretty strict about them holding my hand when we are walking around anywhere. I can't chase them if a situation would come up! I know they will grow quickly so i love this time and wish i had more time during the day to just savor all the sweet moments!