Three

You guys. I have three kids. THREE. KIDS. Three.

Not sure how that happened.

Okay, well I do, but it's just kind of hard to wrap my head around.

Despite the fact that I got married young and had kids way before everyone else my age, I still have always felt like one of the young people. Then a couple weeks ago my husband's aunt and uncle came to see the baby and he pointed out that we now have the same number of children.

I'm old, it's official. Old married lady with lots of kids. Maybe at my ten year reunion in a couple years there will be an award for most fertile? Cause I would totally win that. I may even have #4 by then...

ANYWAYS.

Life with three. It's interesting that's for sure. Like the transition to two, I don't really think it's been that bad overall. Maybe it's because I continually have low expectations. Hah.

The hardest parts about having three:

-Getting out of the house. Even with two I could usually get us going pretty quickly. Now, forget it. If I haven't started the process half an hour before we need to be somewhere, we are probably going to be late. Jude and Eleanor, who I thought were pretty much independent, are actually completely helpless. I have to tell Jude at least 10 times to get his shoes, go to the bathroom, stop crying for whatever he wants, don't get distracted by his Octo-alert... Eleanor is completely incapable, apparently, of putting on shoes or letting me run up the stairs by myself to grab the forgotten pacifier. Lucy hates her carseat and screams at the top of her lungs while I hunt for missing socks and negotiate with terrorists toddlers about what toys can be taken on the long car ride to Target.

-Picking up Jude from preschool. Jude's preschool is in this converted old house. It's actually pretty neat how it's all set up, but it's super crowded and small. For safety reasons, the door is armed and an alarm will go off if you don't use a key to get in or out. But once you swipe your key, you only have ten seconds to get in or out before the alarm goes off. Guess who sets off the alarm because they can't get the circus out the door fast enough?

-The last hour before bedtime. It's like eternity. No one will eat their dinner or pick up their toys. Bath time is part screamfest. Dad is exhausted from work. Baby needs to eat or be rocked. I keep trying to think of things to do that keep us busy until right before bed, like hanging out at Target eating pizza. Or random drives to look at Halloween lights. Anything.

-Simple logistics of the every day things. How do you go to the doctor with three kids?! You pray someone takes sympathy on you and watches them. Or you try to listen to the doctor while a two year old cries on your leg and a baby wails in her car seat. What about a grocery store? You can only shop at places with carts that allow you to restrain 3 kids at once. So basically I only go to Target. How do you go to the bathroom? With a large audience.

But really, it's an adjustment and it's not that bad. I'm still getting out of the house, and we haven't had McDonald's for dinner every night.

Jude and Eleanor love their little sister. Ellie loves to get real close to her and yell " Baybee eye open!!!" or "I touch baybee han!!!" Jude likes to "watch" her for me while I do things around the house or show her his trains. They usually don't have problems sharing mom, but do have some troubles waiting their turn while mom nurses. Jude can be very helpful, getting Ellie snacks or grabbing a missing binkie. Eleanor usually tells me "I can't!" or "I don't know!" when I ask her to throw away a diaper or find her doll on her own.

I really do love being their mom. It's a tiring adventure filled with moments of total stress to complete boredom, but's it's the best job on earth. Love, love, love my Jude, Eleanor, and Lucy.

My attempt to have a little sibling photo shoot, complete with matching tshirts.

I'm not a very great photographer

and even worse at getting them to look somewhere near the camera

sibling snuggle

finally got Jude to carefully hold her. immediately after this picture was taken he just rolled her off his lap and ran away. luckily, the ground wasn't too far away. or hard.

literally every picture in this series is Jude looking up, Ellie looking down. Ellie looking up, Jude looking down.

at least I tried.

they do really love each other though. I hope.