Party of 5

Saturday afternoon we celebrated Bill's sister Katie's 8th birthday at a bowling alley. Afterward Katie and brother Austin (4 years old) begged to come to our house for a sleep over as a special birthday treat. We conceded and packed the kids in the car, which thankfully held us all including Reina. She was of course the real reason that "don't call me aunt" Katie and "I don't think I wanna be an uncle but can I hold her?" Austin wanted to come over for the night. Katie's new doll is named Reina Jr.

All kids fell asleep on the hour ride home...awesome. This multiple kid parenting stuff was EASY! What was all the fuss about? We had dinner at Red Robin (more Bill's choice than the kids, but Austin got his corn dog and to play a video game) and introduced them to what is now considered an old Disney classic, Aladdin. The kids fell asleep again before we could start Cars and were put into bed where they stayed until morning. EASY. The benadryl we gave Kate for her allergy attack didn't hurt either.

I hit a small speed bump in the morning when all three, including my own, needed to eat right now, before Bill was awake. I succeeded in enlisting Kate to wake up the sleeping beauty and monitor syrup usage as I had been informed Austin was, ahem, liberal with it. He also NEEDED desperately to feed the fish, he was worried they might get sick if not fed soon. Reina, now with a full tummy, was blissfully oblivious. Katie was working on getting Reina Jr. fed and bathed.

Gina-mom arrived to collect her children shortly after breakfast and had a few minutes of cuddling with her granddaughter before leaving. Hugs goodbye and we were a family of 3 again for at least a little while longer.

All in all not a bad 16 hours, thankfully we were a 2 parent family. We did have fun, but I do not envy those parents that have to do it all alone. I also think families that have multiples at the same time should automatically be given prescriptions for xanax before leaving the hospital to help chill them out. One at a time is fine by me!

Reina, happy to be an only child for now...