Not Quite Ready for Five . . .

kids that is. Here's a snippet of my day -

I'm holding a screaming 2 month old who is flopping all over the place, the 7 month old is rolling all over and I can't keep track of him, I'm worried about what tiny toy part he got into that the older ones left out, and an almost three year old is trying to stuff crackers down the 7 month old baby's throat. At the same time, I am constantly hearing "I'm hungry", "I'm thirsty", "I need to go potty", "Help me find . . ." from the two almost 3 year olds. So . . . while holding the floppy, screaming two month old, I attempt to get food and drinks for two of the kids, help them at the table, help them go potty, etc. Meanwhile, Isabella is just staring at me like what are you doing? I totally neglected her, because she was not demanding at all. She actually just stood there and watched the other kids eat, without saying anything other than a shy "Annie hungry too". (She always refers to herself as Annie). But she waited patiently until I could get something for her. The poor thing, I didn't even get to her needed to be changed diaper for like an hour and a half!

I told my mom that I don't think I'm ready to have 5! But as she pointed out, they don't usually come that fast. I took care of 5 kids under 3! There were activities at the elementary school today that the moms could take part in. So I watched the youngest kids of two of my friends. I was in complete survival mode, only able to make sure their basic needs were met (and I probably wasn't even very good at that). I felt bad about not giving them the attention they should have had (especially the babies). Maybe that's just because I only have one now, who gets my undivided attention. All I know is, I could never do daycare (at least not that many who are that close in age). And I have a new found respect for anyone who can do that!