How I survived 3 weeks with 3 kids under one roof

I've come to the end of having 3 kids at home for 3 weeks.

PHEW!

Feels like I just ran a marathon and have finally seen the finishing line.

The boys' kindergarten closed for the summer break and as much as I would have wanted to go for a holiday with the family, it didn't make financial sense since August was the peak period for holidays. Everywhere we searched, prices for accomodation was jacked up at least 3 times!

So we decided to go away for a week to Italy in September and take advantage of the last time when we can travel outside the school holidays.

I won't mince words. The first week with 3 kids at home was tough!

I'm spoilt by a husband who brings the two older ones to kindergarten every morning. This translates to me being able to "sleep in" as long as the baby allows me to. This baby, as much as he's my most chilled-out baby, still does not sleep through the night at almost 5 months - not that I'm expecting him to.

But this also means that I've only had broken sleep ever since he was born. I'm not stressed about this though, cos having the benefit of hindsight means that I know that its a matter of time when he would STTN and I would have to breastfeed him less, and he would eat more solids.

Liam might very well be our last baby, so I'm in no hurry to get him through the milestones. He's usually just contented lying on the floor without even attempting to turn! Seriously, that guy will laugh to himself, just staring at the ceiling. I kid you not.

Every once in a while, I do find him on his front cos he just turned on his own and he's very capable of holding up his head. But most of the time, he usually oscillates on an axis such that he's lying in a different direction.

With my first child, I was so keen to practise tummy time with him, cos of doctor's recommendations and I would even encourage him to turn. With my second child, I was more laid back about it but Gabriel couldn't wait to be more mobile like his older brother.

With Liam, I sing the tune of "as slow as possible my darling. I don't want you growing up so fast".

I rarely do tummy time with him and even when I see him attempting to turn, I don't complete the turning cycle for him. He's going to learn his milestones in his timing. I'm just savouring every single moment.

I digress. So back to how my life has been with all 3 kids at home.

I did miss my quiet mornings with Liam. Every morning, I would wake up to "Mummy! Ge Ge took this". Or "Argh argh!" - That's Gabe's favourite grump word at this moment. He seriously goes "Argh" and Sam repeats after him with his own "Argh". And before you know it, both of them are going "Argh argh" again and again. And this is even before they have breakfast!

And me not being a morning person, I go batshit crazy when I hear all that grumbling!

By the time the second week rolled in, I had all my playdates fixed up. We would do something outdoors every.single.day! And thank God for awesome weather because that meant lots of swimming, playground, cycling, outdoor time.

I signed the kids up for a summer swim course 3 times a week. My father-in-law would help me out with Liam on one day, while the hub would work from home the other day so I can bring the two older boys with me. The third day fell on a Saturday so we could all go to the pool together.

It was great to be outdoors BUT there was one big drawback. Liam is a serial cat-napper when we are out and about. His longest nap would be 15 mins! This boy, no matter how tired he is, would never nap longer than 15 mins. So he would manage 3 x 15 mins nap every time we're out. In comparison, he would nap about 1-2 hours at home, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

Well, you have to die one death. So I would rather deal with a 5-month old who is constantly awake, than 2 toddlers who play the snap-snap game ever too often!

Oh and have I mentioned that Sam did the sweetest thing this morning? Gabriel came to our room in the middle of the night and I actually prefer that because that meant that he wouldn't wake up with his brother and start squabbling before my day even began.

But this morning, I woke up to realize that my bedroom door was closed and so was Sam's bedroom door -- even though he was already awake! Apparently, when he got up, he went to our room and closed our door, went back to his bedroom, closed his door and played on his own! Ever so silently!

I went over to greet him "Good morning", to which he came over to hug me, said, "Good Morning, Mummy!" And when I asked him why he closed my bedroom door, he said, "So that you can sleep better".

My heart melted into 10,000 pieces there and then. Moments like this make all the craziness of motherhood so worth it!

Oh and have I mentioned that this boy can fix his own breakfast when he wakes up earlier than the rest of the family? He can get the milk out from the fridge and fix his own breakfast cereals with milk. If his brother wakes up with him, he would fix a portion for the younger one too.

Seriously these two boys can take over the world. IF they don't end up killing each other first.

Sometime into the second week, I decided that if we didn't have any morning plans, I would make us all an omelette breakfast with fresh croissants from the bakery downstairs. I even tried sending Samuel for his first errand - to buy croissants from the bakery.

I would watch him from the bedroom window as he entered the bakery out of sight. And he would march out with that small paper bag of crossiants and grinning the widest grin, like this boy just conquered Mount Everest.

I'd be the first to admit that I wasn't sure if he was ready, but seeing how well he managed to get the crossiants twice, and how proud he was of himself, I knew that this boy is growing up much too fast for me.

It's such a bittersweet feeling knowing that these babies of yours are only going to spread their wings and fly one day. And you can just hope and pray that they would learn all the right values in your family before they start up their own families one day.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but as much as I'm longing for my peaceful mornings again, I'm going to miss sitting on the balcony and having a leisurely breakfast with omelette with my two monsters babies. I guess I'll just have to turn it into a weekend tradition then.

This post has turned out wayyy too long. Its such verbal diarrhea. I always think that I got nothing to write, or I'm too tired to write, or who's interested in what I write anyway, but then once I start writing, I realized that this is such a therapeutic way of journaling my life.

Oh and have I mentioned that I'm probably going to turn parts of my blog into a book? Like compiling all the Dear Sammy / Dear Gabriel letters into a book each and giving it to them? There's even a website for it these days!

If you've read until here, clap clap to you!!!! May you have a lovely rest of the summer ahead! May the good Lord bless and watch over you!

My 3 little monkeys

What the hub gave me to encourage my heart!