The good, bad, and the ugly of having children...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Theme, Intro sound clip  The Good sound clips

**push play and have your sound up!**
Having three children within five years puts a lot of things into perspective. You go very quickly from the "Oh, honey! Look how cute she is all swaddled up!" to "What the h#$% were we thinking???!!!" Yes, kids are really cute, make you laugh, and heck make you feel like a kid again...but, they add a ton of stress to your life and seriously sometimes make you want to cry (not in a good way).

Take for example yesterday...Colin was able to stack a bunch of blocks (developmental milestone), knock them down and then do it all over again. The girls even got in on the fun as they all took turns building and then knocking down. A really good brother/sisters moment.
Fast forward 24 hours and you'll find me chasing Caroline and Colin around the cul-de-sac like a crazy woman -- I'd get one and then the other would escape. You'll find Caroline having a full out temper tantrum (I'm there with the three kids!) at Michaels because she refused to sit in the cart and wanted to run around. Oh, and did I mention driving two little kids to my downtown eye doctor's appointment (in the pouring rain!) and trying to entertain them for 45 minutes with apples, lollipops, coloring,...ANYTHING while we waited to be seen. The kitchen was a mess today, but I thankfully got them occupied with the new Michael's purchases enough to do a quick clean. I finally had enough of Colin screaming so we headed outside and I just let them loose. It's as if I was having a stress induced hot flash that was cooled off by the fresh air. What a relief!

My neighbor came over (she has eight kids!) and we started talking about the craziness of kids. I told her I get a lot of "enjoy it now -- they grow up so fast" and she (always knowing the best thing to say) said "don't you just want to smack them? You'll like it better when they are all in school." AMEN!

So here I am blogging and I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm having dethawed homemade chicken noodle soup (the best kind!) because the kids just had mac'n'cheese tonight. OK - I need to give myself some credit -- last night I made Giada De Laurentiis' Chicken Cacciatore (entirely organic!!) Yum!

My final thought on this topic -- I LOVE my kids, but honestly, despite the social suicide, sometimes even Moms want to throw a temper tantrum (or two). It was just one of those days...