Parenting Skills

This week was a big week for Harrison. It was a big week for his parents as well...his parents that are slowly discovering the trials and tribulations of a house full of three boys.  Our first interesting journey 

was too church. I couldn't find Alden's khaki pants (found them five days later in the costume box), Spencer's outfit was too small but I didn't have the energy to change it, I tried on ten outfits to find something that would fit, and I ended up having to send Joey and Alden to church ahead of us so Alden wouldn't be late to Sunday School at 10:30.  We finally get the rest of us to church to meet up with Joey only to find out that Alden's class starts at 10:00. Post-Partum amnesia.  No seats were left in the back, so we decided to sit in the balcony because there was no way I was putting Harrison in a nursery yet even though we have a great one. He started to fuss 30 seconds into the service, so I picked him up and fought with Joey over who got to hold him. All was well until they bring the little kids to meet the parents half-way through. Clearly, Alden had not had a peaceful commune with God during his Sunday School hour because he was acting more like he had been possessed. There is a point shortly thereafter that you can go and get your toddlers out of nursery to have the family together for the Eucharist.  Against my better judgement, Joey decided to go and get Spencer. Apparently, he got him right out of snack time which, if you know Spencer, is not a good thing for him to miss. They return with a tear streaked and hungry Spencer and the possessed Alden who only wants to pull the feet and poke the sleeping baby. I get up and walk to the other side of the balcony with Harrison to get away from Alden who runs over and laughs and pulls the baby's feet and runs back. What is he doing?! In the meantime, Joey keeps asking me to make a snack for Spencer and then tried to put Spencer in Alden's lap because he didn't want to sit with Joey. I now have four kids in church misbehaving. I finally have to take Alden by the left hand while holding Harrison in the right hand and lead them downstairs where I find a folding chair and sit Alden in it and, in hushed tones and pulling out the old teacher looks, tell him it is church time out. When he continues to act like he has lost his mind, we go to a "prayer meeting" as my mother used to call it outside where I finally got it through to him that he should behave. Well, I told him Reverend Glenda would get him. Sort of the same thing. We make it through the Eucharist and Joey takes the big boys to the car.  The piece de resistance was when the sweet, soft-spoken Sunday School teacher came over and told me that it might be more manageable for us to leave one of the children in the nursery for the entire service. She assured me that the nursery director wouldn't mind. Yep. We have officially been told we cannot handle three kids in church at one time.  We went straight home and put them all to bed!

                                    

Two days later, Harrison got to experience brother's first soccer game. We went with our community league this time instead of the YMCA. We are now in the big leagues. Apparently, there are two nights of different soccer teams and we are on team number 24. I have no idea how many teams of 3 and 4 year olds there are, but at least 24! There is a huge soccer park and a million people.

                                     
Alden is doing great.

Harrison is doing great. He just hangs out in his favorite spot with Mom in his pajamas.

And then there is trouble.  

Trouble that wants to play soccer really, really bad.  

Daddy retrieves him off the field.

Daddy retrieves him off the field...again.

Mom walks him around the soccer park four times.

We chase and chase and chase him up and down the hills. Mom takes him to the playground. Mom gets him a snack at the concession stand. 

Mom, who has yet to see one minute of Alden actually playing soccer, is exhausted. She completely ignores the fact that Spencer has chosen a giant muddy puddle to splash in like Peppa Pig.  Day one of new shoes, $65 shoes. I. just. didn't. care.  Good news is that shoes came clean; bad news is the shorts didn't. We are still working on that.

Since I had to take Spencer and his shoes and shorts to the car to watch trains, I only hear that Alden scored a goal.  However, I have a plan to come armed with train movies, dinner, and folding chair for soccer this week. At least no one told us to leave one kid at home next time!

There are many examples of sibling rivalry around here. Spencer has started sneaking into Alden's seat and stealing his left-over food. You know, if you leave your breakfast sitting there for two hours, I say it is fair game. Alden only wants the two-hour old pancake when Spencer eats it. Go figure. From across the room we hear, "Hey, I was eating that!" Sure.

Baby Harry continues to succumb to attacks. Remember how after he was born I let them toilet paper their room for entertainment? Apparently, my little squirrels stored all of that paper inside the drawer of the bedside table. It reappeared to "make Baby Harry a ghost." Baby Harry is super stressed out these days. All he has to do is hear two little voices crescendo slightly and he starts to cry.  His eyes get as big as saucers when he hears them period. Joey had I had a couple of date nights recently and took Harrison with us. We were amazed at how much he slept, and then we figured it out. The poor thing was in the quiet for the first time in his life. He could trust himself to close his eyes.

 Sometimes, we unite and come together. Like when there is an emergency in the house and we need to take care of the people in the ambulance made out of chair cushions. 

And sometimes we are the emergency. Five stitches in our hand this week.  Let's just skip all of the details of this one and say only this. We have a broken window. We had an emergency room visit. We have five stitches and a big bandage. The people that repaired our window informed me that since we have them come out so frequently they will start giving us a discount. 

Spencer was a witness to the event and has not let Alden forget it. He talks endlessly about it.  Hear we are at bath time. We have to wrap Alden's hand in plastic wrap so it doesn't get wet. Spencer wouldn't get in the tub until we wrapped him up as well. I am not sure whether this is solidarity or a subtle attempt to make fun of his brother. 

 I say this because he always calls him out on his silly business. Alden has been on this kick of being scared of monsters. Even with constant assurance that we have no monsters in our house, we have to use monster spray and have to set monster traps in front of the closet to get him to go to sleep.  Subsequently, Spencer's favorite pajamas are monster pajamas. Every night just as we are about to sit down to read, he disappears in the closet, pops out roaring, and uses this deep Exorcist voice to jump at Alden and say, "I get you!"Doesn't let Alden get away with a thing.

I made the mistake one day of telling Alden we could have a "skip a nap day" as a reward.  He now wants almost every day to be a "skip a nap day." I can sometimes get an hour or so, but never as long with the other boys. I will take what I can get. This is okay though because it leaves us special time together to play legos or have movies and s'mores.

He knows he is winning.

We have made the two month mark and have started packing up the newborn clothes one outfit we outgrow at a time. I keep finding these ideas on pinterest like putting your child in the laundry basket to watch their growth.  I am not sure that Harrison thinks this is the best idea I have ever had and Spencer asked me why Baby Harry had to be in a bucket.

They weren't too fond of my grass backdrop either. Guess I better stick to writing checks to photographers rather than becoming one.

But I am convinced that when I make it black and white it looks better. Wish I could skip the make-up in the mornings and put myself in black and white all day. Hides a gamut of imperfection.