Starting out

This is a such a great option for me. Blogging should be easy for me. Not only do I have so many thoughts in a day, but I'm on the computer enough to at least share some of them. My interaction during the day mostly consists of conversing with a 3 year old, an 18 month old and a 5 month old. Perhaps, this will at least make me feel like I'm interacting with the outside world.

The reality is that I'm such an extrovert that not being at work or outside of the four walls of my house on many days is a real challenge and a real character builder for me. I know that I can take the kids out, and I do many days to run errands and stuff, but it's a lot of work getting the kids loaded in the van, making sure that I have everything that I'll need for our little outing. Little is the key word in the previous sentence. Our outings are rarely more than an hour or two, but it hasn't taken me long to figure out that a lot can happen in that amount of time. And if it can happen, it seems like it does happen.

Right now one of my biggest challenges is potty training my almost 3 year old. Ugh! It seems like I've been working on this forever. Right away we thought he had it down, that was at least a month ago and we are still having accidents every day. I guess in the back of my mind is always the thought that eventually he'll get it. He's not going to go through his life without knowing how to use the potty. Sometimes the big picture perspective really helps.

Another challenge is this: We finally bit the bullet and put the girls together to sleep at night in the same room. Being that they are almost 18 months and 5 months they are both still in their cribs. We just had to pick a time to do it. Alissa was still sleeping in the pack-n-play in our room and we just felt like we had to be done with that. So far so good! Two nights have gone by. Last night was a real challenge though. Andrew woke up crying and came running down the hall, which then woke Anna up. She is not an easy one to get back to sleep so Eric rocked her as she screamed in our bedroom while I tried to get Andrew back to bed. Alissa couldn't sleep through all this of course so she was awake in her bed when Eric layed Anna back down. Since she was awake, Alissa must have thought she needed to eat so Eric got her a bottle and fed her in the middle of the night. Something we are happy to be done with on most nights. So all in all it made for a rough couple hours in the middle of the night.

Did I mention that I have the most awesome, serving husband ever? He does more than I ever would have imagined that he would. What can I say? He really is great. Not just as a husband, but the way he is with our kids is enough to make me melt. They love him so much! Just one example is last night. Eric got invited to a baseball game with his company, but he came home to change his clothes first. As he was walking out the door Andrew followed him saying "Where you going Dad?" After Eric's response Andrew said, "But I want to see you." And you could just see him holding back the tears. Eric picked him up and just loved on him and played a little hi five game that he has with the kids. I guess we'll call it "Hi" cause that's what Anna says when she wants a hi five.

Right at this moment each child is laying down for a nap. Not necessarily sleeping but at least laying down. So this is my chance to veg for a few minutes. I'll go up to my room and put in a Friends DVD and just be mindless for a few glorious moments.