Myke & Me Plus ThreeFour: Chloë and the Boys

Hmmm...not too much to report. We are just busy as bees over here. I rarely have time to type a blog these days, let alone do anything that doesn't directly involve the care of a small person... The days are a bit of a whirlwind, especially the days when Chloë doesn't have preschool. Right now she goes on Tuesday and Thursdays for 3 hours, 9am-12pm. We're discussing changing it to M/W/F so I can have a bit more "help" or time with just the boys. Wrangling the three of them at once can be quite overwhelming, but usually it's all dependent on Chloë's mood that day...or should I say that minute. She can be good as gold and super-sweet or she can be cranky and testing me every second all within a 2 minute period. She loves her baby brothers, but sometimes the love of a toddler can be painful. She likes to give them big hugs when they are in their bouncy seats, then the next second I see her pulling the backs of their bouncy seats all the way to the ground and then letting it go, in what looks like an attempt to catapult them right out. They've definitely gained air. I've started making sure that I strap them in for the ride...just in case there is one. She also likes to "tickle" them which ends up being more like pinching them, or she pokes at their little heads. I definitely do feel guilty a lot because she is often asking, "Mommy can you play?", "Mommy, play now?", "Mommy play ball?" and I have to continuously say "Just a minute", "Right when I finish this...", or "As soon as I'm done feeding the baby" or "I can't right now, Chloë" etc. I know it's all part of it and it's good for her to be able to play alone, but still...it can be hard...and it breaks my heart when I feel like I'm saying that to her all day long...and there are days like that. I have twin infants!

For the most part, the boys are very chill little guys. They will sit and hang out in their swings, bouncy seats or on the play mat and just look around and kick. For the most part they only cry when they are hungry, wet, or tired and ready to nap. It's fabulous! I just hope it continues! Chloë used to cry for seemingly no reason at all...and often! (Wait, she still does that...I think it's partly because she's female..because I do that sometimes, too). I remember the first few months having to hold her all the time, she would never sit in a bouncy seat or swing for more than 5-10 minutes, and she NEVER laid on a play mat and looked at the dangling toys. We wondered if she had colic, we gave her colic drops, gas drops, reflux meds, etc. Nothing really seemed to work consistently. Even my mom once said, "Well, she's just mad at the world". That was her diagnosis after years of child-rearing experience. Thanks, Mom! :) (I had to put that in here because we still joke about it to this day).