Update on Being a Mom of 3

My official party line right now is that life is great. And it really is. But here are some thoughts about my great life.

I love having 3 children. It makes life in general more fun, but it does make some details not fun at all because little babies are just not that fun and teaching children to be nice and obedient isn't all that easy. The biggest thing I have noticed as the mother of 3, which seems to not be going away, is that time is going by so fast.

In a very large nut shell, I'll tell you that I both love and hate the fact that 3 children makes time go by so fast. The days are seriously cruising. I love this when I want to put my children to bed and it is -- wow -- already 6 p.m. and time for dinner. Sweet! I also love this on Sundays and holidays when everyone around here is busy hopping from BBQ to BBQ with generations of family and since we have no one, Tim just wants to take a nap. Glad that days over. I love this when the children accidentally sleep in every day because time is going by just that fast!! Awesome!

I do not love time with wings when I am hanging with a friend and it is already time for work (because we get there at 10 instead of the ideal time of 9 because of sleeping in and nursing and brushing hair and choosing clothes and putting on sun screen.) I do not love the speed of time when I actually am having a blast with my kids playing outside and at parks after work and then I forget to feed them and then bedtime goes to hell and the night is over and everyone is scream and there is laundry to fold. I do not like feeling like all I do is feed my baby because those 3 hours go by so darn fast. I do not like it when there is no time to hug and snuggle and coo at my baby because she just lays in her crib or on the floor getting a flat head while I do other things.

I don't feel stressed and busy ... I just feel like time is too fast. I think that with 3 there is just more to do and the time just goes by. A 3 hour eat, wake, sleep cycle for my first baby felt like an eternity. But poor Lizza has had to learn to just eat faster to keep up with life in a family of 5.

Another thought I have about being the mother of 3 is that being the mother of 2 babies is very hard. I used to want twins, and while i would completely embrace that blessing ... (knock on wood and all that Jazz), I cannot imagine having two actual babies at once. Kenna is 2 and she feels like my baby. When I talk to my students about my kids, they have no idea who I am talking about because I call them all my baby. And the biggest 2 baby challenge is walking across the street or walking anywhere for that matter because Kenna is still a baby in this regard. I am almost always equipped now with a stroller and an infant carrier/bjorn/Ergo/ "strap baby to my tummy" contraption because at any moment Kenna can demand that the stroller is her "seat" and demand that baby be removed. Plus, Kenna doesn't hold hands and she likes to sit down in the middle of road/sidewalk/parking lot/ store if you grab her hand. She is not mad .. she is just sitting.

Moving on: I do not have guilt or issues with working a full time job with 3 kids, but I am finding that more people equals more to do, and more to do before I head to the office means I really can't be as carefree and relaxed as I tend to be naturally. So now we have a lot more rules and lot more routine so that we can fit in the good stuff together (and so mom doesn't cry because all she does is yell.)

So that is it -- Time goes by faster, and I feel like I have two babies. I am more paranoid about them drowning or hating me when they are old, but I love having more little ones around me because my babies are little people and I just love to be around people.

I also love Mormons and family, so I am killing a lot of birds with a couple stones here. It is great.

It makes me want to eat a lot of ice cream before bed, but it is great.