Pushing the limits

Going to the bathroom as a mom is a chore, don't let anyone tell you differently. Especially when you are carrying one child and the other children follow you in there because they don't want you to do something without them. Or they just want to talk to you and the only way to talk to Mom is to follow her around wherever she goes.

When DD is at preschool and DS and the twins are home with me. DS doesn't want to miss anything. He is within about 4 inches of my body at all times, even when I'm nursing both twins. He knows that I will be doing the most interesting things, and so he follows. He often brings a book and anytime I am stationary we look at a page together. I tried to distract him today because I had to build some shelves for the playroom. But no, he knows what my tool bag looks like and nothing is more interesting than hammers and screwdrivers and nails. I'm grateful for DD to come home from preschool because then he will play with her. It really helps to have the second child home.

My 9 and 7 year old are in a school play and most moms go and help. It was all I could do to go and cut out the fabric for their costumes. Actually, I wasn't able to do it until the end when the school principle walked in the room and saw me cutting with a baby rolling around on the table with the fabric and the other one on the floor being nudged by my toe. I failed to have any of my little helpers (even a 3 year old is better than nothing) with me on this occasion and that was a mistake. I am still learning my limits. I find that if I don't push them I get stuck and start telling myself that I can't do certain things because I have 7 month twins, 6 children 9 and younger, etc.

Living in New York with 4 young children was a daily dose of pushing the limits of what was common for most people. I never got so many "God Bless You's" in my life. I think it really did help because I never did lose one of my children on the subway (we were able to push the doors back open to grab the one who deliberately stayed on the platform). My 31/2 year old was returned home unharmed by two policement at 2 AM, after she unlocked the front door of our home and went looking for mom and dad outside in the park (we were in the basement). I was never reported to Child Protective Services for as many times that I had to take a child to the emergency room for stitches, or arms out of socket etc. (I was taking them to different hospitals each time because I had been told by a doctor that if I was seen there again, the doctor would make a report).

I survived all of that and continued to get out and do what I needed and wanted to do. Until the twins...that was the end of New York. Now I push the limits in Utah and still feel like a pioneer Mom. Going to the bathroom is a small triumph...having a bath is a luxury (my last bath was 3 days ago at midnight). I am victorious!!