Life with four kids

Lots of people ask how it's going with four kids, so I'll tell ya. It's either going swimmingly or it's falling apart at the seams. For instance, right now, the house is peaceful and quiet and even somewhat clean! Alaina and Ryker are napping, Landon just fell asleep too and Raelin is reading quietly. I love nap time when it goes well. However, the scene from 30 minutes ago looked nothing even remotely like this one! Landon had woken up and was screaming for some attention, but I couldn't hold him and take Alaina potty so he had to wait. Alaina's been doing this thing where she wants to go to the potty every 5 minutes, but she won't actually GO ever. Raelin and Ryker had been working hard cleaning the upstairs all morning and they had earned coffee cake and were "dying" of starvation. I couldn't get the 13X9 pan full of cake out of the oven one handed, so Landon resumed screaming when I put him down. I also didn't want to eat holding Landon, but I was hungry too, so I tried to bounce him in a bouncy chair while I ate--I'm not that coordinated. Then Alaina was throwing her coffee cake all over the floor and on Landon's head, making him scream more. Alaina wanted to go potty again and getting her out of her chair to sit on the potty (but not go) results in crumbs all over the floor. Then Landon pooped. The older kids wanted milk. Alaina wanted milk. Landon wanted milk of a different variety. I wanted milk. Cups and milk all around and then Alaina wants to go pee again. Landon cries. Ryker spills his cake on the floor and needs help cleaning it up. Raelin tries to help him but he doesn't want her help. Everyone is screaming. Including me. That's having four kids at its worst. Most of the time it isn't like that. Getting ready to go somewhere, however, IS like that. Everyone needs help with every blessed thing--Raelin can NEVER find her shoes, Ryker can't find either the belt he wants or some socks, Alaina and Landon both need to be dressed by me and Alaina is certain to have carried off her shoes (she loves shoes) and left them in two different rooms in the house and Landon is bound to want to eat five minutes before it's time to leave. Oh, yeah, and I have to remember to dress myself. Don't forget that tiny detail.

I got brave the other day and let the kids finger paint with a little paint mixed with shaving cream. They had a pretty fun time. When I take Alaina in the shower with me, I put some shaving cream on the wall for her to use as soap so I don't have to keep filling up her hands with it. So she thought this was soap and by the end of this exercise, she was green all over. She worked particularly hard to wash her feet and her "privates." I told the other kids to paint the paper and not themselves even though Alaina was doing it. They had fun getting all goopy and writing their names in the shaving cream. I took Alaina up to give her a bath and seconds later, Ryker appeared with his whole leg and foot COVERED in green shaving cream! AAAAHHHH! I told him to rinse it off in the bath and I went down to survey the damage. Fortunately, he didn't track nearly as much through the house on the way to the bathroom as I was anticipating. I cleaned up what mess there was and went back up tot he bathroom. I found Ryker completely submerged in the tub with ALL HIS CLOTHES ON! AAAAHHHH! I told him to take his wet clothes off and get out of the tub. I left the room to try not to start screaming at him for all this trouble he'd caused when I was trying to do something fun for him. The next thing I heard was the distinct sound of sopping wet clothes being plopped on the carpet! AAAAHHHH! I yelled at Ryker to get his wet clothed OFF the carpet and get out of the tub and take a nap, for cryin' out loud! I'm sure Landon woke up and cried somewhere in the middle of this fiasco, but I can't remember for sure.

But most of the time, things aren't completely insane. It's usually only two kids (not shaving cream-covered green monsters) needing something at any given moment and one of them can usually be placated for at least a few minutes. Raelin is getting to be a big helper with Alaina. Ryker is a great fetcher of baby things. The two of them play together wonderfully most of the time. The biggest issue issue with the two of them is usually that I don't like the way they're talking to each other, so, while they would work it out on their own if I left them alone, I intervene to instruct them on speaking kindly. There's also a fair amount of tattling that I want to figure out how to eradicate. Oh, and the endless sneaking of food. I HATE that. Like I'm not going to notice that they just ate half the bag of Oreos. I don't even have to see the bag; the evidence is all over their faces and clothes! Hello! But other than that, the two older ones are really stepping up. They are doing a much better job of cleaning without arguing and that alone is making a huge difference! They really don't need a whole lot of help with most things so that frees me up to help the two babies and do all the things they need. The most difficult thing with the two babies is keeping Alaina out of trouble while nursing Landon. And she is trouble! She's into EVERYTHING! It's extremely difficult to enforce what I say to Alaina when I've got a parasite sucking the life out of me. I also have yet to master running errands with the two of them. So overall, I'd say things are going pretty well. A few trouble spots here and there, but we'll figure out how to get through them. It's also helped a lot to have Brice around more; it gives me a chance to figure out how to do four kids slowly with lots of breaks from going it alone. If I was doing four kids 24/7 like I was when Brice was in school, I think I'd pull my hair out and turn into a crazy person. Crazier might be more appropriate. But this way, by the time Brice goes back to school and I'm on my own with them more, I'll have a lot of it figured out.