I feel like on the hard days I never have the energy to write about them so anyone who reads the blog probably thinks we totally have this triplet parenting thing nailed by now. =) In reality it continues to be a rollercoaster with super high highs and some pretty low lows. Yesterday was a high and in fact, I said out loud to Michelle how happy I was that we had triplets and how fun it was to watch them grow up together. We went for a family bike ride and stopped at a park along the way to eat lunch and just had a lot of fun watching them run around and conquer a big hill.
Today started out a little rushed because I had an early visit. Michelle decided to give them a morning nap because Isaiah was just falling apart all morning. When I got done with my two visits I came home and loaded them up to go to the library to return much overdue books and get some new books because I'm getting sick of reading the same books every day! Plus it was a cloudy cool day and the library seemed perfect. And really, it was. They did great while we were there but Ellie was starting to fade so I loaded us up to head home.
While we were there I'd noticed Isaiah's manparts were a little red and seemed sensitive so I called the nurses line just to check in and she said she likes to err on the side of caution when it comes to these sensitive body parts and gave us the only available appointment...at 1:50pm, smack in the middle of nap time. Michelle had teaching commitments so I just did what I to do and brought all three. We had an awkward amount of time, not enough to bother getting out at home, but too much to just head straight to the doctor so I swung by the house for a stroller and off we went. I remembered that there was a park maybe a half mile from the doctor so we parked at the clinic and walked over with two in the stroller and one on my back. Well about two minutes from the park Avery said "wet" and had peed all over the stroller the one time I didn't have a diaper under her and of course in my hurry I also forgot the diaper bag so I had nothing to clean it up and no replacement shorts for her! Thankfully I found two little papertowels in the stroller pocket and no one else was at the park so I didn't feel weird about her just running around half naked. While I was cleaning that up, and in between pushing Ellie on the swing, Avery tells me "potty" so I rush over to get her to take her to our portable potty and as I'm scooping her up I see that I am in fact already too late. There is a big solid turd sitting right on the landing of the play equipment! Oy! Rewind to the fact that I have nothing to clean this all up with! I swoop her up and over to the potty then grab Isaiah and toss him in a swing so he can't grab said poop while I'm scrambling for a way to clean it up. I spot some big leaves that will do to clean the poop and use the remnants of papertowel to wipe her bum. Then I pop back over to push Ellie & Isaiah again in the swings.
About a minute after this picture was taken I check my phone and see that we are supposed to be back at the clinic in five minutes. So I toss everyone back in the stroller and carriers and hoof it back to the clinic, half jogging in my jean capris and flipflops. By the time we make it back to the clinic I am dripping with sweat and still have to swing by the car to grab the diaper bag and drop of wet shorts.
We made it to the clinic only a couple minutes late and then proceed to wait for FORTY minutes to even be called back to an exam room! Let me tell you, you have to be creative trying to entertain three toddlers in a doctors office without letting them out to touch all the germ-infested and oh-so-appealing looking toys! Thankfully I'd saved the pineapple from lunch which I doled out as slowly as possible. Really, they were VERY good considering they should have been napping, but it took a lot of my energy to make that happen and by the time we got home I was wiped!
Turns out Isaiah's sensitive area is okay, but he has a nasty double ear infection! Glad we went! I don't know what my problem was, but in the moment I didn't feel like being there for two extra seconds or having two more cranky kids on my hands and I didn't have her check all their ears like I usually do. Now of course I'm kicking myself for it, especially since Avery is doing a funny head rubbing thing saying her hair hurts and Ellie projectile vomited in the middle of the bedtime routine! (Perhaps this explains why no one wanted to eat dinner?!) Anyway, I could share more about the evening and the cranky madness, but I really need to get to bed because I don't anticipate that this will be a very good night! Even amidst the craziness they still find reasons to smile & I need to do the same!
