The Three

Sometimes it seems like this house, all this stuff (myself included), and even my job belongs to these three boys. 

For instance, this morning I didn't wake up to fix my hair and make-up for the day, or take a shower, read a book.  I woke up when my baby wouldn't nurse back to sleep (although it's a miracle to get him to nurse more than twice in 24 hours these days anyway). 

I get up, rock him and play with him until Mickey hollers from his bed "Mom!  Pee pee PEEEE!"  I take him to pee, make him a sippy of "shock shock" (chocolate milk), and set him up with some cartoons while I start breakfast.

I haven't yet bought into the lie that every other mother on the planet limits television of her two year old to less than 2 hours per day, so I don't feel guilty when I hear Spongebob and Sandy entertaining my kid while I cook eggs, again. 

Breakfast cooked, plates set, babyfood warmed to the perfect temp for the little one.
Mickey go get daddy for breakfast.  Go pee so we can eat.
"Dad! Eat eat eat! Pay Pay Pay!" (Pray pray pray).

We eat, I clean up (usually), do some laundry (most days this is a must), play with the kids for a bit, get ready for work WAY before I'm ready to.  Kiss all three of my boys bye and leave for the hour commute to work. 

I love my job, but I think about my kids and my husband the entire time I'm gone. 

It gets tiresome.

Looking around here right now all I see is their stuff, and at some point taking care of them and all their stuff became my life and my stuff.  About the same time all my stuff became theirs.  Like my phone is Mickey's because thanks to Peekaboo Barn, he has a pet "tow tow" (cow) that lives inside of it.  My room is Abel's because that's where he sleeps, and when he's sleeping, no one wants to go in there and risk waking him up.  Of course my body, belongs to them all--for Abel to eat, Mickey to climb on like a jungle gym, and Morrel to, well, you know...

My favorite place is the shower.  Just me and the warm water.  I might pay dearly for that water when the bill comes in, but for that 15-20 minutes it's all mine.  Mostly I just stand under the warm water and listen to the silence.  It's golden.  And it's mine.