Reaffirmed

Weekend with Elise and Nolan

About twice a year, we have the opportunity to have our decision to have just one child reaffirmed when Elise and Nolan come to stay with us for the weekend.  The Gs get a kid free weekend; our decision is reaffirmed.  Solidly reaffirmed.  Very, very solidly reaffirmed.  Super glue couldn't bust me out of this decision.  I am meant to parent exactly one child.  No more, no less.  One. One. One. One.

The weekend wasn't difficult so much as exhausting.  All three kids played relatively well together, though they bickered and fought as all kids around each other for more than 30 minutes tend to do.  Elise and Avery actually played extremely well together a vast majority of the time.  Every once in a while, Nolan would wander into the mix and offend one of the girls by his very existence, but those situations are fairly easily diffused.  But this cycle goes on and on and on.  It never stops.  Play nicely, bicker a bit, adult intervention in some way, play nicely, throw fit over Little Brother touching/looking/being, play nicely, ask to watch TV, etc.  So tiring.

Next up on the exhaustion list is the constant food prep, food delivery, and food clean up.  One kid eats a tad bit more than two adults.  Three kids eat the equivalent of 12 adults.  I felt like the little boogers never stopped eating.  Avery would ask for blueberries, then two minutes and a pint later, they'd all ask for even more blueberries.  One has a banana, they all have a banana.  One gets a cookie, they all get a cookie.  Before the Gs dropped the kids and ran lovingly departed from their dear children, I told the Rachele & Jay about my food/meal realization:  first, I planned the two dinners in my head; five minutes later, I was driving along and said, "Shit! I've got to feed them lunch, too!"; about two minutes after that, I said, "Fuck! They have to eat breakfast, too!"  No, those things did not occur to me right next to each other, it was a slow and painful realization.  With one kid, I just wing breakfast and lunch.  With three, winging is much harder.

Various tantrum/whining triggers is the next area of exhaustion, though truthfully, only Avery's really cause me to be tired.  Nolan's are just plain hilarious.  He's definitely entered a stage where he wants to be defiant, but still has a tad bit of obedience in him (I suspect that the last ounce of desire to be obedient in any form will disappear exactly on August 18th. Call me crazy, but that's my bet).  Anyway, several of Nolan's fits were proceeded with the same set of circumstances: D or I (Adult) yell, "No, Nolan! Stop!"  Nolan then freezes whatever he's doing, but avoids eye contact with Adult at all costs.  Adult keeps saying, "Nolan, no! Move away from [insert danger area here]."  Nolan is still frozen.  Adult can do this with increasing sternness and volume with no change in Nolan's frozen, eye-contact-avoiding state.  When Adult is able to free him/herself from whatever tending-to-three-kids activity in which Adult's engaged, Adult picks up Nolan and he immediately goes into tantrum.  Upon placing him on the floor away from danger area, Nolan goes into what is the cutest little cartoon tantrum ever.  He lays face down, then kicks his little feet back and forth in a rapid motion.  It's so very cartoon-ish, which is why it's so freakin' adorable.  I should note I think it's adorable given I am not his parent.  I am quite sure I'd be aggravated by this as his parent.  But I'm not, so it's pinch-those-chubby-cheeks cute.  D and I discussed this behavior and decided that Nolan is just trying to wear Adult down, hoping that Adult will just give up redirecting him so he can proceed with his devious little task without missing a beat.

By far, my favorite part of having the three kids together is going out with them.  They were so cute getting out of the car and holding hands as we walked around downtown.  They also have the funniest conversations in the car.  Of course, I can remember none of them, but I was cracking up. Getting back into the car after a trip out is considerably less fun since kids like to mess.  Avery goes to Elise's car seat, Elise freaks out, Nolan doesn't want to go in his car seat, Avery is taking her time climbing into hers, etc.  On the trips home, kids also like to ask a lot of questions.  Avery always asks lots of questions, but then having Elise's commentary on Avery's questions was enough to drive me over the edge.  Obviously, we played the, "Let's see who can be the quietest game!"  D won in his effort to not piss me off anymore than the kids. Avery lost since she goes into giggles right after, "Onnnneeee, twooooo, threeee!"

The Gs walked through the door around 4:15 on Sunday night.  Nolan and Elise were happy to see them, but it was me that ran through the foyer yelling, "Mommy!  Daddy!"  I almost kissed those Gs.

This was Avery after E and N left: