Ever feel like you've just stepped into a tornado?

The transition from 1-2 children really didn't phase me much...although it did take me about a week or so to get used to his schedule. The transiton from 2-3 has been a tad overwhelming, especially with the babies only being 5 months apart in ages. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of everything, their therapy appoints started and Andy went out of state. I do fine when it's me and the kiddos at home. I'm getting a schedule of how to do everything. It's when you start adding in worker visits, therapy appointments here at home that they want you participating in, doctor appointments, stuff out of the house that we have to go to that I start majorly stressing and feeling overwhelmed. It's hard to focus on that 4th dimension (whatever it may be) when I'm chasing 2 babies around the house, trying to keep E from bullying the other ones, and trying to keep everything flowing nicely and yet I have to focus on some other thing that is going on here. Not to mention, that usually they're here when it's the kiddos nap time and they get into everything they're not supposed to when they're tired way more than normal.

Tuesday went fine...that was our free day and we just played around the house. When the kids napped, I used that as my down time and I stayed up way late after everyone went to bed to have some time for me since Andy was gone and couldn't give me a break.

I'm learning that Wednesdays are my rough days...not sure why...not sure if it's just because that's the half way point through the week or what. But, it's been a hard day to get through for whatever reason. Anyway, Deidra was feeling out of sorts (probably because Andy was out of state and that was a change in her routine), we had the therapy coming out for a major appointment, I was trying to get in the shower and the house cleaned during the boys morning nap time, they didn't want to go to sleep. I asked for her help in cleaning up the toys and she was fighting me on everything. She destroyed her room and I had to put her in time out until she cleaned it. Daddy called in the middle of her tantrum, asked to talk to her, and she willingly cleaned everything up then...which tells me she was desperately missing Daddy. The therapy people got here, she was wanting attention to and to be included, I was answering a zillion questions, trying to keep the boys out of everything, Deidra and E wound up getting into it and that was so unlike her...normally she's so patient with him. I think she's just tired of getting bit and her hair pulled. But, she was too agressive with him. Anyway, after they left I wound up putting the boys down for a nap and I told her that I needed to have a serious talk with her. I told her that she is in no way to ever put her hands on the children again, there are serious rules about this stuff, and that she wouldn't be going to gymnastics or to the play place to play and that we would be staying home until she could get her behavior back on the good side whether Daddy was here or not. Talk about majorly stressing me out. I worried all night about it.

Thursday morning, I knew that the end was in sight as Andy got home later that night. However, I didn't know how I was going to make it through the dentist appt with all 3 kids by myself and that was worrying me. We still don't have a double stroller and the waiting room there is like a shoe box. Anyway, I was still worrying about the incident between E and Deidra and I wanted my caseworkers opinion about it all so I called him to talk to him about it. Deidra woke up crying and asked if we were going to have to give the kids back because of her. I spent the morning trying to comfort her with her kept saying that she was sorry. I knew she didn't hurt him, but I just kept trying to tell her that if he did anything that she just had to keep telling Mommy so that Mommy could deal with it. I try to get to him when I see that look in his eyes to reiterate the nice behavior but I can't see everything. Not to mention that sometimes he barely touches her and she freaks and it's hard to tell what really happened. It's come down to now that I have to check for bite marks and he's got her good a couple of times. Anyway, the caseworker reassured me that these things are going to happen with their ages...they understand that, but that we really have to reiterate with Deidra that she cannot touch them or that will eventually get us in trouble if it keeps happening. It's only happened the one time and she feels immensely bad about it, so I don't really foresee it happening. She didn't really understand about the rules before now either (other than me telling her not to do anything back to him when he first did that stuff to her and she never really tried. Anyway, I found out a good thing with E to try for when he does the "bully" behavior. He can sit in time out forever and it doesn't phase him (he's still in the living room with the other kids). However, I started putting him in the playpen in his room for 3 minutes and he hates being alone. Then, I go back to get him, tell him that if he can play nice then he can come out and play, and I take him to the kid that he has hurt and make him give him a hug. When he does nice behavior I have also started to really play it up by telling him what a good boy that he's being and we all clap for him. It seemed to work much better and I think he is slowly getting it. Being in the car is a whole other story though...I still have to think of ideas for that one. We really need to get a van and then it will be a non-issue because he won't be able to reach anyone.

Anyway, we survived the dentist appt. I put J in the stroller since he was the only one who didn't have an appt. D and E played...well E got into everything he wasn't supposed to. I had paperwork to fill out on D and E and it was horrible trying to fill it out with him running and getting into everything. It took me a half an hour to get E's paperwork done before they could see him. Then, his appt was literally 2 seconds. I was hoping for a reprieve while they cleaned his teeth to be able to get Deidra's done without having to keep an eye on E at the same time. They took D back while I was doing hers and I literally just finished it about 5-10 minutes before her appt was done. However, things did quiet down once I was actually able to concentrate on both boys and didn't have that dreaded paperwork to try and get done. Both kids had good appts and nothing wrong with any of their teeth. We wound up going to McDonalds afterwards because they got free french fry coupons from the dentist along with their new toothbrushes. We came home to eat and then I had to take them all to a training up at the agency that we had to go to on SIDS and Shaken Baby Syndrome. That gave me an hour to myself to wind down a little bit. I was able to talk to our caseworker again and I felt a lot better about everything. I went and picked up the kids from the rec room after training and then we had to run to the store for more milk. Got home and got the kids ready for bed, in their jammies and gave them their medicines, and put them down to sleep. Deidra asked to stay up to see Daddy since he was supposed to be landing soon and I told her that she could cuddle with me on the couch. There turned out to be a major delay in his flight though...I was worrying about why he didn't call and then Andy's dad wound up calling me asking if I had heard anything from Andy and when I said that I hadn't he informed me that the flights out of NY were delayed due to weather. He wound up landing shortly after 10:30 although he never made it home till shortly after 1 am. I was just relieved that he was finally home.

All I know is that it's hard work taking care of 3 kiddos with no break and I don't want to be a single parent ever. I hope Andy won't have to go out of town for work anytime soon either.

Thank you, Abba, for surrounding us with your protection while he was gone and for seeing us through this week.