I'm Supermom!

Okay, I'm nowhere near Supermom. If I were Supermom, I wouldn't be falling over completely exhausted before 8:30pm. But lately, partially out of boredom, partially out of avoiding packing, and partially out of guilt for not doing much with the kids while I was pregnant because I felt either really sick or really tired, I've been taking them to "fun places."

On Saturday afternoon, I decided I needed to get out of the house. I wasn't really up for a lot of activity, so I thought a movie would be fun. I packed up the 3 kids and we went to see Space Chimps. Not a bad movie, really. And the kids were great. Sam and Tevin had a little spat about which straw was which, but Cadence slept through the whole movie in the Snugli on my front. Tevin made it the whole movie without having to go potty (which would have necessitated dragging all 4 of us to the restrooms...shudder). We got home and I was feeling pretty proud of myself. I'd taken all 3 kids out. By myself. And we survived! I must try this again.

Sunday, I tempted fate and took them to the Childrens' Museum. We have a year membership which we paid $125 for back in March. I took Tevin to the museum once, and we used our membership to get into the St. Paul museum. But other than that, we hadn't used it. I figured it might be a good idea to do that. First, we went to eat at Tumbleweed. It sounded good to me and we don't have much food in the house (must go grocery shopping, we do have to live here another 3 weeks). The kids were wonderful at Tumbleweed. Then the museum. It was great for about the first hour. Then Cadence needed to eat. Now, I'm all for the rights of women to breastfeed in public. But my comfort level certainly doesn't include nursing where anyone can see. I'm pretty self-conscious and try to be as inconspicuous as possible. I was able to find a little area where the kids could play and I could sit in a corner and nurse her without anyone really being able to see. She was fed and we went to other areas. The kids were having disagreements about what they wanted to do. Then Cadence started to get fussy again. My back was killing me from carrying her around in the Snugli for 2 hours. I announced that we were going to leave. I promised that if they were good, we'd come back again sometime this week. Tuesday or Wednesday, I said. Reluctantly, the children followed me out the door. Not as complete of a success as the movie, but we all did survive.

Monday we laid around the house. Nights have been difficult around here, to say the least. Tevin's having a lot of reactions lately. I suspect he's getting a lot of hidden red dyes. In any case, he's been getting up at night. Not necessarily waking up. We think he sleepwalks. That's a story for another day, though. In addition to Tevin waking up, Cadence is doing what a 5 week old is supposed to do. She's been up at night also. So Monday was a sit around day. A much needed lazy day. Yesterday, my parents came over to help us around the house. Dad and Matt fixed the front door so it shuts easier and then put in the new storm door. My mom worked on sanding the ceiling of Cadence's room. I fed Cadence. Okay, not all day. I did some dishes and I made dinner. But a good portion of the day was spent feeding the baby. At least I was resting.

Today, there was very little rest. The children were very quick to remind me that it's Wednesday. And I promised them we'd go to the Childrens' Museum Tuesday or Wednesday. Since Tuesday had passed, that only left Wednesday. Today. Get up and go right now, MOM. After feeding Cadence well and showering, we made a trip to the bank to make a deposit and then grabbed lunch at the Hardee's Drive thru and headed to the museum. Another 2 hours of "fun". Sam volunteered for everything during the science demonstration. It was cute. They painted pictures, weaved a bit, played with Kinex, and then Cadence got hungry. Seeing a theme? "Cadence ruins all our fun! Why do babies have to eat all the time?" It seemed rather futile to point out that bigger children, especially mine, eat at least as often as the baby. The difference, of course, being that I don't have to expose my breast for them to eat. I found a corner where I was mostly secluded and let the children play with the wooden train set while I fed Cadence. Unfortunately, that didn't pacify her for long. When she was finished eating, she wanted to sleep. Which meant either I had to hold her (back hurt a lot by that point) or we had to go to the car and get moving. This time I was a bit more intelligent and didn't make any promises as to when specifically we'd come back. I just said that in the next 3 weeks while Daddy is gone to Michigan we'd definitely go back.

I guess the bright side is that we all came out alive from each outing. The downside is that right now it's nearly impossible to even raise my arm to pet my 3 year old "kitty Tevin". We really do have to get back to more reasonable bedtimes soon. School will be starting and we'll all have to adjust to it being an hour earlier there. For now, though, putting them to bed is more effort than I can muster.

I may not be Supermom, but I am Mom. That must count for something.