5 Under 6

Jamie requested it, and there's no way a thoughtful, well-edited post is gonna make it's way onto this blog regarding life with 5 kids under the age of 6...  Heck, I'm far from the first to experience this!  But just in case you were wondering, here are a few facts of life when you have this many young children:

- You may find yourself allowing your children to play with ridiculous things just so they leave you alone.

Mary Claire was the only child awake/out of her nap time prison (because she wouldn't stop screaming "ELIZABETH!!!  WAKE UP!!!") the other day and I was trying to get dinner prepped.  So when she asked for a raw potato?  You better believe I gave it to her.  And it bought me several minutes of free time in the kitchen where she wasn't trying to hang from the handle of the oven or trying to climb onto the counter!

-  You will find yourself rewarding your children for ridiculous things.

Mary Claire needed to use the potty for #2 right when Andrew was walking out the door for a meeting.  And I was nursing a fussy baby.  So Cecilia and John Paul supervised her on the potty, wiped her, and John Paul went to get her a chocolate chip for her success.  At which point I told him that EVERYBODY got a chocolate chip for doing such an awesome job...  Now they want to help her use the potty at every possible opportunity and I have a feeling this is the only way the twins are actually going to get potty trained...

After that, Cecilia put her in a clean pair of underwear all by herself.  And then Mary Claire peed on the floor.  So, you know, you win some you lose some.

- You will find yourself repeating the phrase "YOU NEVER TOUCH A SLEEPING BABY" approximately six million times throughout the day.

HANDS OFF!!!

The twins are the best at leaving Peter alone.  John Paul?  CANNOT resist giving him a kiss, or touching his hand, or snuggling up to his head at every opportunity.  Cecilia mostly waits until he makes a little noise in his sleep, at which point she starts snuggling him or rocking him or trying to soothe him somehow.  It actually works a surprising percentage of the time, so I'm not entirely sure I mind...

-  The hours in the day manage to pass incredibly quickly, but also incredibly slowly.

Somehow the 3ish hours between breakfast and lunch pass in minutes.  And yet the hours between the end of naps and dinner time?  ENDLESS.  I'm not the only one to experience this phenomenon, I know - I'm pretty sure every mom in the world knows that the 90 minutes between 4 pm and 5:30 actually take something like 27 hours to pass.

-  You will be astonished at how much OLDER all your other children seem every time you have another baby.

Lining up their Blessing Blocks for "Tummunion" - I can't get over the body language!

The twins were babies a month ago.  BABIES!  And now?  Practically pre-teens.  Time!  It flies!

Anyway, in case you were wondering how we're doing, it's crazy but awesome!  I kind of can't get over how blessed we are, and wouldn't trade this for the world :)