Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Three for Three

A couple Christmas ago I was riding in the backseat of my brother’s car on Dad’s Durham Family Christmas Lights Caravan tour. I squished between my two nieces in their car seats: 4 year-old Chloe on my right, 1 year-old Piper on my left.

My brother and his wife (six months pregnant with Sadie) sat up front. I was in charge of keeping the girls entertained so we sang a bunch of Christmas carols. But after singing “Once There was a Snowman” about 8 times in a row I got really tired. As we drove past the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon on our way to see the lights at La Caille, Chloe said,

“Laura, how about when Sadie is born you take Piper.”
“Why would you want me to take Piper?” I said (after I laughed). Chloe answered, quite practically,
“I don’t think three is OK.”

Chloe must have had a lot of faith in this unborn sister to be willing to sacrifice the one she already knew for the sake of three being too many.

Last Sunday I took on the challenge of tending all three girls for three hours at my home. Every time I agree to tend the girls a wave of relief and gratitude overcomes Carter and Kelly – you’d think I paid off their mortgage or something.

Somehow I pulled it off.
We ate lunch.
We barked at the dog next door.
We tried to watch A Bug's Life.
Piper showed me her Cheerio trick.
Showed me her puppy impression.
Chloe helped in the kitchen.
We had a jelly belly hunt.
Aunt Lisa came to visit.
Their cousin Jack tried to get away.
Then we had a screaming match. My idea. It was a bad one. For some reason I thought if everyone screamed real loud once they would stop. But they didn't. This went on for what seemed like an eternity.Although I absolutely adore them all and life would not be complete without all three, I’m beginning to wonder if Chloe makes a valid argument.

One day if I have more than two kids they’ll read this and think how horrible their mommy is and ask me which one of them I wanted to give up.

13 comments:

Lisa Marie Trent said...

I think- that once you've seen how ROUGH life is with more than one..HECK just ONE kid, you may re-think the "lots of kids" idea.

But who knows, maybe your kids will be perfect little angels.

Maybe.

Rhett said...

I love the Jack getaway! Seriously a good pic!

SRA said...

Friggin' hilarious. Love it. And being one of two children, I can tell you it's the way to go. My brother is enough trouble for about three kids. haha jk Love ya!

Ilene said...

You did pay the mortgage by volunteering to babysit. I promise.

Can't wait to have baby #3 now. However, I'm not ready to trade in 1 or 2.

Janey said...

If I based having kids after an afternoon with my sister's three, I wouldn't have any! It's amazing how Betsy gets when she just gets to go to the grocery store alone. You'd think I was sending her on an exotic vacation!

Lisa Marie Trent said...

I'm glad you feel so good about babysitting.

Cause I"m gonna hit you up again, soon.

Charlotta-love said...

the screaming idea made me laugh.

Anonymous said...

Glad you had fun with the kids. You have no idea how much it means to parents just to have a few hours off every so often.

Cameron's Corner said...

You seem like a great babysitter. Let me know next time you're in Ogden with a few hours to kill.

Seriously.

Maria said...

Wow- the screaming idea doesn't suprise me one bit that

1) You thought of it

2) It totally back fired

lol

Laura Lee said...

I think it's funny how everyone wants me to tend their kids. Where in this post did I say it was easy?

Maria, are you saying you're not surprised I came up with a bad idea? I'm not sure how to take this. At least it made you laugh...

Monica said...

These are some great pictures. Yeah, 3 hours with 3 kids is plenty. But I have a feeling that 3 hours with 3 girls is a lot harder than 3 hours with my 2 nephews and 1 niece, which I've seen a lot of lately...With the boys, you can just tell 'em to go and play video games and they'll be perfectly content doing just that.

Maria said...

Are youi kidding me? No- I'm saying I'm not surpised that you thought of a screaming game - I think you like to scream...lol