What motherhood looks like right now

There was a time where I thought it was insane to bring 3 kids out alone, but those days are over because last week, I took all 4 of them out on the bus. Alone.

Truett had to stay back for swimming lessons in school and the other 3 wanted to tag along to pick him up so I thought, yeah why not, right? How hard could this be? Turns out, actually not that bad. This buddy system is the best thing ever invented. Kirsten watched the two little boys on the way there, and Tru took over as Theo’s buddy on the way back. Easy peasy.

I suppose this is what they call skills upgrading. Next upgrade: 5 babies.

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I generally like bedtime, but bedtime with this baby is out of control.

I thought I’d seen the cheekiest baby (Kirsten!) but this Theo is a new level of ridiculous. He has no downtime and he doesn’t even make the slightest effort to try to fall asleep. He’ll sing and talk and be like all play for 2 hours on the bed and just as I’m about to give up, he will flop his head onto the pillow, pretend to close his eyes in the most cherubic way possible and say “VERY TIRED!!”

The first time he did this, I totally fell for it like “woah, did he finally fall asleep??” but then it was just his way of toying with my feelings because 5 seconds later, he jumped up and laughed like it was a huge joke and he got me.

Incorrigible.

Finally, he’ll insist on lying directly on top of my chest in order to fall asleep, which would have been great at any other time, but with baby Hayley getting to be the size of a papaya, having another baby lie on top of me is like being suffocated with cuteness. For better or worse, I can’t ever resist feeling the weight of a chubby baby on my chest.

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I don’t know how this happened but Finn is a dreamboat through and through.

He’s got this way of making people feel special without even trying. This is the kid who would stop right in the middle of a playground session and run over to whisper in my ear “I need to tell you a secret…I love you, mom!”

Sometimes when we’re out with friends, he’ll go up to the aunties to give them a hug or quietly hold their hand without being asked to do so. And I can see it in their eyes – instant heart melt.

So on most afternoons, the kids have a regular playground date with a group of other kids near our apartment and yesterday, I spotted Finn running back with an armful of dried sticks/leaves that he had picked from the ground. I tried to make him throw them away but he was adamant that these were flowers and he needed to give them to all the girls. I was like “first of all, those aren’t flowers. They’re dried sticks and girls generally don’t what them. Also, why do you need to give them to all the girls??”

But he needed to, and who am I to say no to chivalry? Although I was pretty certain the girls wouldn’t want them.

I was wrong though, because the next thing I knew, he was distributing them to a bunch of girls and guess what? They all took the dried sticks like it was roses on Valentine’s day.

Looks like I’m not the only one who finds it impossible to say no to this face.