It's what crazy people do.

Ah, I'm exhausted. Reeeeally exhausted.

It's my first week home alone with 3 kids, which is challenging enough. Yesterday I felt brave and decided to have an outing - we went to storytime at the library. Perfect trial run, really, since it's nice and close to home and I can leave whenever I need to. But today's outing? No comparison.

We went to playgroup at a park. Alex cried in his carseat because he was hungry - I didn't leave enough time to wake him up and feed him, and that made for a grumpy kiddo by the time we arrived at the park. While at the park, Jacob got stuck at the top of some monkey bars because I wasn't watching him. Suddenly I have 3 to keep an eye on, and Jacob was the first victim of me learning the ropes. At least nobody was hurt...although Jacob apparently thinks it's great fun to throw sand at people. Sigh.

At noon, we left and went straight to grab some lunch. While I had nursed Alex at the beginning of playgroup, it had now been a couple hours, so he was of course hungry again. I nursed him briefly in the car before we headed into the restaurant. But it wasn't long enough, so he got grumpy with me again pretty soon after we were inside. This was all while I was trying to order food for the rest of us- what fun! I snarfed my food down as fast as I could, trying to enjoy the pleasant blend of curried chicken salad with avocado and pineapple and mango chutney, while bouncing Alex on my knee, and trying to encourage Jacob and Melinda to please eat something other than the side of chips. All while watching the clock like a hawk, because we really didn't have much time before we needed to head off to take Alex to the doctor.

When we were done, it was back to the juggling act of herding two walking kids through the parking lot while I carried an awkward car seat and a heavy diaper bag. And then back down the busy street to the doctor's office. And Alex still grumpy with me because he still wanted to finish his meal.

Once we got to the doctor's office I plopped myself down as fast as I could and nursed Alex during our short wait. Melinda and Jacob proceeded to dig through the toys as fast as they could, making a perfect mess. All too soon, a call of "Alexander?" came from the door. Then it was back up and herding the older two and carrying Alex with me down the narrow hall. At least this time it seems like Alex was full enough of milk to be content.

He was weighed and measured, of course: He's 12lbs 11oz, and 22 3/4 inches long (in the range of 95th to 97th percentile). And then we waited for what seemed like half an hour in the exam room...although it was probably more like 10-15. But that is MUCH too long for two energetic, increasingly tired kids to be cooped up in a room waiting, with nothing to do. They opened every drawer and door they could reach, ran circles around the exam table, rolled around on the stool, and so on. I was already tired by the time our doctor joined us.

But once she got there, boy oh boy, they got about 10 times worse. Suddenly they were running and screaming inside that tiny little room - it couldn't have been more than about 8x8. How they were managing to run, I don't know. But I do know that for some reason, my kids seem to think that being inside a doctor's office gives them license to run around like crazy howler monkeys (just ask my midwives, they'll probably agree, despite always being so cheerful about my tag-along kids!). Having myself and 3 kids cramped in there, along with the doctor, was pretty close to a nightmare. It's a good thing I didn't have any serious concerns to discuss, because there's no way a solid discussion could have happened. As it was, I had to interrupt our talks a few times to have Melinda sit on a chair for antagonizing her brother, which resulted in some serious pouting and more poor behavior. And once she decided she was done with that, she wanted to leave. Helped herself to the door and everything, and I had to go retrieve her and Jacob from the hall and explain that no, we will not be leaving the room until we're done talking with the doctor. Finally we are done, and Alex decides he's had enough and starts screaming his head off. So I decide I'll call in our next appointment instead of trying to do it over his loud, insistent voice.

Seriously... I'm tired! Please tell me there are other people out there, somewhere on the face of this earth, who are also crazy enough to take three children at once into a single small exam room? After already being out of the house for 3 hours? Close to naptime? Because I sure felt like I was crazy. And the best part is I'm planning on doing it all over again, having all three of them get a check up in the same visit. I must be absolutely mad to want to repeat this.

And yeah, I'm not the only tired one. Not 10 minutes after we've been back inside the house, here's Jacob:

Looks like a good idea, right? Mmm. Couch naps. Wish I could have one right now.

And for a couple pictures that aren't quite substantial enough for their own post, here's Alex floating in the bath a couple nights ago - he enjoyed it so much! He was perfectly content and just remained fairly limp and unmoving for a good 10-15 minutes before we got out. And he smelled so nice when we were done, too, because we added some Burt's Bees Apricot Baby Oil to the bath, as well as washed his scalp with it (that's also what's making the dots in the water, by the way).

And here's the wonderful daddy! Not only did he put Alex to sleep in the sling, but he kept wearing him while he played video games. :)