Growing pains

Wow, what a crazy, happy, busy, grumpy, peeing on the floor, sleepless, contentious, loving, cranky, messy, and enjoyable couple of weeks we've had. I swear that everyday since we brought Ella home can be described with each one of those words. The whole family seems to be having a hard time adjusting to our beautiful new addition. Although each and everyone of us absolutely adore her, that alone can be the source of our troubles, especially among the Big, Bigger and Biggest sisters...I constantly here "I want to hold her, you've been holding her more than me!" Oh to be loved so much that everyone fights over you. On top of that my darling boy has decided that maybe that potty is not all that it's been talked up to be. Peeing on the floor, deliberately, is totally the way to go. One day last week he came up stairs and said to me, "Pee potty". I was thrilled because we had already had a few "accidents" that day, so I said "good boy, go pee in the potty" to which he responded "NO, pee floor" as he walked into the bathroom. I called after him and said, "Don't pee on the floor, sit on the potty". Yeah...he just stood in the bathroom with his pants on and everything and peed on the floor, just like he said he was going to do. The next day, he pooped on the floor in the girls bedroom....I just about lost it....correction...I completely lost it. I had anticipated that we would have potty training set backs when Baby was finally born...I just didn't think that these set backs would be worse than when we started the whole potty training business. So I was forced to step back and start from the beginning. I got out the little portable training potty again, and hoped that he would at least be willing to sit on it. I've gone back to the cheering every time he does it on his own. I've stooped to bribing him with chocolate eggs when he refuses to sit on it at all. There is a lot less peeing on the floor, and that is always a good thing.

The girls never gave me so much grief when a new baby joined our family. But this boy of mine, he is really giving me the gears. He hadn't ever reached that Terrible Two stage, even though he is almost three, that is until he wasn't mom's baby anymore and the big sisters all went back to school. For the most part, he is still my lovable boy, but he can have a melt down over the littlest things. And when he has a melt down...Watch out! All Hell breaks loose and the whole house gets turned upside down. Some how he has the power to turn everyone in the house into a miserable monster and everything just goes up in flames.

Bed time is my favorite time of day. Honestly it has always been my favorite time of day, but these days I love it like I have never loved it before. Thankfully my kids have always been great at going to bed. Even the boy in his melt down, once he has been put to bed will stay in his room with the door shut. He may continue the melt down, but at least he does it behind closed doors. I have been trying really hard to continue with our regular bedtime routine, regardless of how he is acting. I want him to know that mommy still has time for him, and that some things will always be the same. But there are nights where nothing will console the monster, and the only thing that can be done is to leave him alone with his blanket and let him cry it out. And then when he has started to calm down, I always try to go in and tuck him in and give him a kiss and let him know I love him.

I have moments where all I can do is cry, but thankfully there are so many other moments that just make me smile or laugh right out loud. Yeah it's hard to be a mom to five kids....what, did I just say FIVE kids? How did that happen? Seriously, am I even old enough to have five...oh,right, yes I am. Not sure how that happened either, didn't I just graduate high school? (almost 20 years ago Mandy).....
Right, so it is hard and complicated and challenging to be a mom of five, but it's all good. We'll get this figured out before it's over....or at least working functionally well, in a way that we can all survive with smiles on our faces...That is the plan.