Just in case

I don't know how I would do it. How could I ever forget the events of this evening. But, just in case I ever forget how my first night with all three boys went, I thought I would type a few notes here.


1. Gavin has never been hungrier...little man wanted to nurse every 30 minutes from 5:30 until 9:00. In between, he would cat nap for 5-10 minutes, cry until picked up, and nurse some more. If this keeps up, I won't be able to continue breast feeding. Oy. Surely he was just extra hungry tonight.


2. Owen fell asleep at the dinner table. After weeks of working to get away with as much as possible, he has gotten out of control. He negotiates EVERYthing....what bed he will take a nap in is negotiated, where he will sit to eat his breakfast, what he will eat for breakfast, how many bites he needs to eat to get down from the table, how many times can he take a toy from Liam before getting in trouble, can he just tell his Daddy "no" when a request to pick up his trash is made and get away with it, can he get out of sleeping in his own bed at night (all of a sudden at bed time his favorite saying is that he doesn't like his bed or that he needs to sleep with his mom because he LOOOOOVES her), the list can go on and on and on. Well, tonight we had a stand off. I tired of hearing "can i get down" from the table and tacked on 5 extra minutes at the table every time I heard it before he finished his measly, tiny, dinner that was served him. I sat with him for an hour.

Then, I had to move forward with bed time for the other boys. I explained to Owen that he had 5 minutes to eat his dinner before the other boys and I went upstairs. Five minutes later, he hadn't eated, so the t.v. went off and Liam, Gavin, and I went upstairs. After 15 minutes or so, Owen made his way upstairs, too. He was as sweet as pie. I wanted to just forget about dinner and enjoy the rest of the night. But, I couldn't. So, I asked he had eaten his dinner....he said he had. I asked if he was sure and did he need to go back and have a bite before I went to look at his plate, he was "sure". Well...

he hadn't touched his dinner. So, I took him back to his chair, told him that I really wanted him to come and play with me and Liam, but that he had to eat *some* (I was letting up on him a bit) of his dinner first. After thirty more minutes, he fell asleep there. Terrible way to spend his last day as a 2 year old. I teared up as I laid him in bed. But, I am so tired of him being such a brat. Ironic part is, he had been AWESOME all afternoon for me. I intended for the evening to end well, too. But, I am so worn out of the negotiating and whining and once I started down the path of keeping him at the table, I just couldn't let it go. Otherwise, he would know that I will give in before him. Not a good thing for him to see at the moment. Augh.


3. Liam associates the word "poop" with the bodily function. I learned that first hand tonight. In the bath. The sweet boy said "poop", pointed to his hiney, and, {in the time it took for me to work out whether or not he really meant it}, he proved to me that, in fact, he did. The evidence was floating about as my mouth hung open in disbelief that my baby was telling me he had to go potty. Too bad I didn't trust him. Oy.


4. Be thankful that I trusted my instinct not to let Gavin bathe with Liam, yet. See item 3, above.


Somehow, through all of it, I just stayed calm and went with the flow. I never raised my voice at Owen. Kept calmly telling him that he could eat his dinner (all three bites of it), get down from the table, and join me, Liam, and Gavin to play. Instead of crying, I praised Liam for telling me he had to go potty. Instead of pulling out the emergency formula in the cupboard, I fed that baby as much as I could inbetween all the chaos. And, then I prayed that tomorrow go better.
Especially since we have a birthday boy in the house that is certain to be on his best behaviour after tonight!!