Hotel rooms with kids

My mom and I decided that we needed to make the most of our remaining time in New York and are trying to check things off of our ‘bucket list’ while we are still here.  The weekend after Easter we decided to take all three kids to the Crayola factory in Pennsylvania about 2 hours away from West Point.  We went the night before and stayed in a hotel.  I like to get a hotel with a pool so the kids can swim and play and burn some energy off before going to bed in a foreign and exciting place where they are not likely to sleep anyway.  I usually book a suite so there is some division in the sleeping area and the ‘living area’ so I can put the kids to bed and not have to sit in silence until they fall asleep.  If it is not dark and quite none of them will go to sleep.  We are not that family that can fall asleep with the TV or a light on.  As it turns out the ‘suite’ at the Holiday Inn Express in Easton, PA is a regular hotel room but instead of two beds it is a bed and a couch.  As soon as I walked into the room I knew it would not work.  Not only was it one big room but now we did not have enough sleeping spots for all of us (the couch only pulled out into a twin bed, not a full or queen).  I called the desk and asked to move to a regular hotel room.  It was less expensive and we at least had 2 beds.  Of course, the hotel was totally booked and we had to stay where we were.  I was not happy.  I moved the mini sofa around to try to create a half wall to block Allie’s crib from view of the bed where the kids and Gigi were sleeping together to create some sort of separation between the 5 of us.  I was stuck sleeping on the horribly uncomfortable twin sofa bed and Gigi was in bed with the 2 big kids while Allie was in her crib. 

We decided to let the kids stay up an hour later than usual so they were more likely to fall asleep right away.  As usual, when planning for things with kids, we were wrong.  Allie was exhausted and wanted to go to bed before 8 but we were all in the room together and she could not sleep.  The big kids were excited to be sleeping in a hotel AND in the same bed as Gigi so they did not want to sleep.  We decided to turn off all the lights and watch some TV.  The big kids liked this but Allie cried almost the entire time.  We just decided to turn off the TV and go to bed around 9 pm.  Once it was dark Allie fell asleep almost right away.  The big kids were whispering and talking to Gigi and every now and again if they got too loud, Allie would wake up and cry.  I was shushing everyone and about 30 minutes later the kids were all asleep.  If Andy and I were in the hotel room we would have turned on the TV at an extraordinarily low volume and watched for a while.  Since it was my mom and I, we just went to bed.  The baby cried every hour or so through the night, Drew fell out of bed, crashed, cried, and woke us all up.  He then would only sleep with me in the twin bed that my 7 month pregnant ass would barely fit in.  He was actually laying on top of me most of the night.  Well… when he was not kicking me.  Gigi wakes up really early out of habit and before 7 in the morning decided that she could not just lie in bed any longer.  She got up and went to the bathroom.  This woke up Addison, who was in bed with her, and then they were both up.  They decided to go down to breakfast in the hopes of letting the rest of us sleep.  However, when they opened the hotel room door to the lit hallway after 10 minutes of whispering their breakfast plans, we were all up… before 7 am.  It was not a good night of sleep for any of us.  It never is in a single hotel room with kids.  In my next life when I have tons of money I will always just get 2 adjoining rooms so I can stay up past 8 and have some of my own space. 

Multiple moms vs. moms of many

(my friend's kids with propped bottles)

Recently a friend, neighbor and fellow blogger of mine, who has triplets, posted a picture on Facebook of her kids being fed with propped up bottles.  There were 157 comments!  50% of the comments were negative and talked about her being a bad mom, neglecting her kids, not bonding with them, they are going to choke and die, and so on and so forth.  The other 50% of the comments were split, 25% defending parents of multiples, good for her, etc and 25% saying they had X number of kids and they would have propped a bottle too.  There were several posts from parents that said they had a 3 year old, 1 year old and a newborn (or other close in age kids) and other “multiples parents” saying that having kids close together “does not count” or “is not the same as having multiples”.  Here is my issue:  I think that having kids close together is HARDER than having multiples at MANY stages in life.  I will give the multiples moms the newborn stage.  That has got to suck no matter how you look at it.  I have never had multiples so I can’t say what you go through every day.  All I know is what my neighbor and a few other friends have done but here is the reason behind why I say that.  Her kids are all on the same schedule, eat and nap at the same time, do the same activities, etc.  My kids all nap at different times (or not at all).  They attend different schools on different days and participate in different sports.  This sucks.

 There have been times that I nursed the baby at the dinner table while we ate as a family just so we could all sit down together.  I have fed my youngest breakfast in the car on a daily basis to get the others to school on time.  I have nursed and changed diapers out in the back yard so my older kids could play with some supervision.  I have also been confined to my house for months at a time based on rotating nap schedules.  I have scheduled childcare so I could take my oldest to soccer practice in the freezing cold and not drag the others out.  During this same soccer season, I have had all of my kids out in the cold because the same soccer practices.  My kids have sat on the toilet until their legs and butt went numb waiting for me to wipe them because I was changing/feeding/tending to a younger child.  When you are up all night with a newborn or a sick child the others all still need to be up, fed, dressed and out the door the next morning.  There are very few days when you can just sit around in your pajamas all day.  As a matter of fact, I don’t think I have had one since before Allie was born (I miss pajama day).  Next year I will have 1 in school full time, 1 in preschool a few mornings a week and two at home, one that is a newborn.  Just to coordinate all of those schedules is a full time job/nightmare.  The new baby will simply be thrown into the mix and be dragged everywhere we go.  Allie will be drug everywhere as well but I am sure it won’t be as willing.  I am sure there will be several evil eyes given to me while I nurse in public and drag my brood around to soccer, swimming, school functions, etc.  I am okay with this.  I understand that I agreed to this when I decided to have kids this close together (and this many of them).  I just want to point out that being a mom is hard no matter how many and what age children.  Having kids close together is equally as hard as what moms of multiples do on a daily basis with 2 or 3 of the same age, if not harder.  Give us moms of many the credit we deserve.  And yes, I would have propped a bottle too. 

My brood 5, 3 and 1 :)

Grandparent Hangover

Andy and I just got back from 5 days of house hunting in Virginia in preparation for our move this summer to the Quantico Marine Corps Base.  Since last week was the West Point spring break Andy took leave and we checked out the area.  The housing on base (it is a Marine base so I will have to get used to saying base, not post) is not in our favor.  There are only 24 houses that can accommodate our family size and they are all full with no vacancies planned any time soon.  The housing representative described the waiting list as “indefinite”.  On to plan B… We looked online at a few houses but had no idea what the neighborhood, schools, area, etc. were like.  If, in the end, we need to sign a lease for a house sight-unseen we would at least know what the neighborhood was like and where it was located.  We may have found something that will suit our needs for the next year, but it is not totally perfect.  That is the nice thing about frequent Army moves… everything is temporary so you learn to live with imperfection.  If we end up hating the house or area, we will only be there for the rest of the year (staying positive is my strong suit). 

Since we had all 3 kids in tow we asked Andy’s parents to come to VA with us.  They were planning on coming to NY in April anyway and this was a much shorter distance for them to drive and we needed someone to entertain the kids while we checked out the area.  It seemed like a win-win.  We left the kids with the grandparents for two entire days while we fought Virginia traffic and looked at what felt like 100 houses (it was actually only 8), and then co-existed with the kids and grandparents for another 2 days.  This led to a HUGE grandparent hangover for our kids.  The phenomenon known to us as the ‘grandparent hangover’ is very similar to a real hangover.  You are really tired, dehydrated, have a stomach ache, just need a nap, have put junk into your body that now needs to come out one end or the other and have not bathed.  Oh yeah, and you have an entitled feeling that makes you think that you can do whatever you want.  Our kids swam in the hotel pool almost all day for two days with only a ‘rinse’ afterwards.  They ate junk food, did not nap, stayed up late, and woke up early.  While I understand that this is what grandparents do… I am left to deal with the after effects… the hangover.  Addison’s hair was so tangled that even after a leave in conditioner treatment I could barely comb through it.  Both big kids had diarrhea for two days and Allie did not sleep well for almost 4 days until she could get back on her schedule.  Drew actually started as sentence with, “But Grandma says that we can do whatever we want…”  And even though they spent half the week with us I know that they are going to come to West Point in April anyway so we get to suffer the hangover again.

We were also introduced to a new word via text from some very close friends of ours.  The word is “hangry” and I believe that the definition is: a sudden anger and general bad attitude brought on by lack of food.  Andy, of course, expanded the theme to cover being tired or pregnant as well but changed the root word for effect.  The first time he called me “titchy” you could label me as “hangry” but you have to replace hunger with husband.

In addition to swimming in the hotel pool, jumping on the beds, doing crafts we brought with us and a ton of time at the McDonalds playland, we did go to the natural history museum in DC and to the national aquarium in Baltimore.  The kids had a great time and hopefully we got a house so we don’t have to make another trip down.  Keep your fingers crossed that the home owners “approve us” to rent their house.  I don’t know why they wouldn’t… I have an almost perfect family.  I am sure my kids and dog would not ruin a thing. 

Not so perfect morning

This morning was a hectic one.  Really, it was not all that different than any other morning but stuff just kept going wrong.  As I mentioned earlier, we are not morning people.  We woke up a little late today and this started a chain reaction.  Waking up late leads to lots of rushing around, disoriented kids, yelling parents, crying kids and even more lateness… well in our house anyway.  The kids got up, ate and dressed themselves okay but after this it went downhill quick.  I went one way in the kitchen, and Drew went another and he ran right into my butt with his face.  Of course he was hurt to the point of crying by this and I had to take time to console him.  We laughed about him hitting me in the butt and he got over it.  Still late though.  Addison went into a crying fit over being told to tie her shoes.  More consoling, more lateness.  I tried to make a cup of coffee for the car ride to school and I never put a cup under the Keurig.  I made an entire cup of coffee into the drip tray!  We finally got loaded into the car and off to school.  I had to run to the store to buy some birthday cards so after I dropped off Addison the little kids and I went to the Hallmark store.  Of course it did not open until 10 and it was only 9.  K mart was right next door so we went in there.  Allie was still in pajamas but I figured that kind of thing happens in K mart all the time.  We picked out 4 cards, one for my mother in law (whose birthday was 5 days ago) one for my step mother (whose birthday is next week but I actually remembered in the card aisle) and 2 back up cards so I won’t forget next time.  I got to the check out and realized I had no wallet.  I had to load up the kids and leave empty handed.  The card is already late… what is another day?  Let’s hope the rest of the day goes a little better than this morning. 

the kid's pad

Sorry for the hiatus in the blogging.  I have been working on the West Point Women’s Club annual fundraiser, Viva Las Vegas!  Viva is a casino night with table games, bingo, a poker tournament, silent and live auctions as well as entertainment.  I was doing all the publicity for the event.  Between the meetings, emails, phone calls, documents and more meetings, it has taken up almost all of my “free” time over the last month.  After the event last Friday, I took this last week just to veg out after the event.  The West Point Women’s Club raises money, mainly through Viva Las Vegas, for our grant and scholarship programs.  Last year we gave away over $47,000! 

Andy and I had a great time at the event.  He played in the poker tournament and came in 2^nd place.  This was a $300 prize!  I spent almost all of this money on groceries last week alone.  We did buy him a pair of ice skates so he could skate with the kids during open skate at the ice rink.  The kids are thrilled that he is going to start skating with them and I am happy I did not have to spend money on groceries. 

I played craps almost the entire night.  Going into the event I had a game plan that included socializing, a round of bingo, some card games and the silent auction.  Well, I went to the craps table and never left.  Literally I think I went to the bathroom 1 time and the rest of the time was spent at the table.  It ended up paying off in the end because I won a brand new Kindle Fire.  This was one of the most coveted prizes of the night.  I was really excited to win.  When they called my number I was in disbelief for a moment but then jumped around a little bit before claiming my prize. 

The next morning Andy and I were discussing what to do with the Kindle Fire.  I already have a regular Kindle and an iPad.  Do we keep it, sell it, what?  We ultimately decided to give it to the kids.  They play a lot of games on our iPad and we decided that since the Kindle is really an iPad ‘light’ that it was the best decision.  That way if they break it, it was a free kindle, instead of a $500 iPad.  I had an internal debate with myself over giving such an expensive item to our kids.  Is this the right thing to do?  Are we spoiling them?  Is it a smart decision?  This is the 21^st century and most kids have tech gadgets.  Andy and I just decided that these gadgets are the way of the future and our kids would have one eventually, why not a free one?  They were thrilled.  They started calling it “the kids pad”.  We never even had to explain to them how to use it.  They figured it out all on their own.  I downloaded most of their apps and they jumped in with both feet.  We have to make sure they are sharing it and only using it for their allotted amount of time.  If not I think they would use it all day long. 

A few days ago I checked my email and there were some Amazon.com purchases on there; a 2 year Kindle Fire warrantee and a “Cars” DVD that we already had.  I called Andy at work to see if he ordered them.  We came to the consensus that the kids ordered them on ‘the kids pad’.  We also think it was unintentional.  There is an Amazon link on the main page of the Kindle and if you tap it the website comes up with a ‘deal of the day’.  The warrantee was one of these deals.  I am not sure about the ‘Cars” DVD but I am sure we will never really know.  I had to delete all of the links, apps and books, except for the few kid’s apps from the kindle and cancel the DVD order.  Now it is truly a ‘kid’s pad’ because the only thing that is on it are kids games.  I did keep the warrantee just in case they do decide to throw it at each other and it ends up broken.  I think Drew may have been onto something there.  In the end, we are all happy and I am happy to have my ‘free’ time back

3 kids sleeping

All of my children are asleep at the same time… in the middle of the day!  This may be a miracle.  Right now Allie still takes 2 naps a day and Drew takes 1 nap.  Are they at the same time you may wonder… NO!  She sleeps from around 10:30-noon and then again from 3:30-5 pm.  Drew likes a nap around 1:30-2.  I try to keep him up so they sleep at the same time but this just makes him cranky before the nap and not want to go to sleep until 9 pm because he is rested from his late nap.  All of this leads to me being tied to my house all day because one of my kids is always sleeping.  Addison no longer needs a nap on most days.  I do try to give her ‘quiet time’ in the afternoon while the other kids sleep.  We usually work in a workbook or color and if mom is in a really tired mood, we lie on the couch and watch a movie.  I may or may not watch the backs of my eyelids during this time.  It depends on the day and the kids mood (if they want to harass me while I am on the couch or not).  Addison has a bit of a cold and because of this has been tired.  Today I have the glorious opportunity to do whatever I want while they all 3 sleep.  What did I do?  First I sneaked around the house and took pictures of them all sleeping like the stalker mom that I am.  I worked on my volunteer job, did some online shopping and then decided to tell you all about this.  I could have been productive and cleaned or prepped dinner but that would not have been any fun.  It is hard to be on the computer and have cohesive thoughts with 3 kids around so I took the opportunity and ran with it.  I hope at least some of you get one of these miracle moments this week! 

We can't have nice things

Fruit Ninja is a game where you pretend to slice fruit with a sword on a screen, iPad, etc.  The more fruit you slice, the more points you win.  My children decided to play “fruit ninja” on our television with a pen and a nail file yesterday.  This resulted in deep gouges across the entire screen.  Of course this has happened the day before the Super bowl and we are having 6 of Andy’s cadets over to watch on our now distorted screen.  I was almost physically sick over this.  The TV is not that old either.  All I could think is “this is why we can’t have nice things”.  Andy and I have had the ‘we can’t have nice things’ conversation before.  We had a dining room set that was purchased at a garage sale, then used by my uncle, then my grandparents and then inherited by us when we moved to Oklahoma.  We made an agreement that when he got promoted to major that we would get a new dining room set.  In the time between making this agreement and him actually getting promoted, we had children.  I realized that getting my dream dining room was out of the question.  Our dining room table has huge gouges in it from the kids stabbing it with a fork.  I made a compromise that I would get a new hutch and cheap Ikea chairs and keep the old table until they would stop ‘forking it’.  We now have an entirely mismatched set and I am still waiting on my ‘fancy’ table and chairs.  I got a new couch while Andy was deployed sometime after having Addison and Drew.  I paid a million extra dollars for the highest grade of fabric that the store claimed was ‘kid proof’. I also got the extra warranty where they will come and clean the couch for you a handful of times.  The couch is stained by milk, juice, cheese crackers, you name it.  The fabric has held up well if you actually clean it.  The process to get your couch cleaned under the warranty is a nightmare and is not even covered for crayon, marker, etc.  I found this out the hard way involving a small child and a sharpie.  The carpet is equally stained.  They have broken or destroyed almost every toy they have owned and most of their clothes have holes or paint all over them.  Again, this is why we can’t have nice things.  I don’t think they do any of this maliciously.  They are just kids and my kids tend to be a bit wild.  They play a lot and they play rough.  I am okay with this.  What I do want to know is when does this phase end?  High School?  When they are out of the house?  I am not sure.  Until then I guess we will just deal with the scratched, the dirty and the stained.