The Wildcard

Everyone always says by the third child you are just surviving. You don't care that the binky fell on the ground or that the kid hasn't had a bath in days. You are fully aware that they will live. Is it bad that I was pretty much that way with Stella, my first? I never even owned a bottle of hand sanitizer until I married Kevin, and he brought it with him. Kids are resilient right? I'm also the mom who is notorious for forgetting the back up set of clothes or the diaper bag in general. Just today I grabbed the bag on the way out the door, but failed to notice that it didn't have wipes or a bottle in it until we were at lunch. Don't worry though, it had an extra SD card and a jump drive.
I wondered, (ok I'm sure everyone else did too), how I would handle the third child. I mean I was already letting Stella and Ruby eat dirt and forgetting things, how was Henry going to survive my easy going parenting style? (Thats what I'm calling it, easy going parenting.  Not a space cadet, forgetful or worry free parenting. Easy going, like I'm this way on purpose.) I'm certain my mother in law was holding her breath at my newborn parenting. She was very relieved when I arrived at her home and Henry had socks AND a onesie underneath his outfit. A little credit, It was December and he is a newborn...
When I was pregnant I decided that I was going to be a little more dialed with this newborn. I was going to have his clothes perfectly folded and organized by size and month and I was going to document his every move, I wasn't going to forget things and mostly I was going to blog his every move and milestone. (fail)

(like how I just threw in a few photos to make up for the hundreds I didn't post?)


Seriously? Seriously? I'm off my rocker when I'm pregnant... None of those things matter, well maybe the photos, because you can never have to many.  But in my planning and dreaming I miscalculated the angry middle child. That's your wildcard. And there isn't anything you can do to prepare yourself for it. You just endure it. You think it's going to be ok the first few weeks, maybe even 6 weeks. They are cute and everything is fresh and new. Then the reality sets in that the baby isn't going anywhere and that darling two year old enters the world of angry middle child, never to leave. So all that time I thought I would use being on top of things is now spent navigating Ruby. Oh Ruby...
It's a good thing she is cute and being on top of things is over rated.  Henry will be just fine if I don't have all the 3 month onesies stacked perfectly and if I don't write down every move he makes. Newborns pretty much do all the same things: eat, sleep and poop. And my other kids are great, I mean they may eat dirt from time to time, but it builds character right? I'm embracing this liasse faire parenting, and enduring Ruby and all of her antics. I'm glad I have Stella who is all about being good and doing things right, it evens out the balance and trust me that is equally exhausting.

love love