HELLO.  We have entered a whole new ball game!

It’s called the terrible two’s and apparently they do exist.  Over the past few months, the kids have become extremely opinionated.  Not just about the color of their water bottle, or the type of cereal they have but also about the way their food is laid out on their plate and the streets we turn on to get to school in the morning.  And the drama is through the roof!  Who knew not having matching pajama bottoms could be such a travesty?  Oh, and the bickering is INSANE!  Mia eggs Marcus on and the two of them end up picking at each other all day.  To top it off, Mia and Marcus are going through a major “mommy” phase.  They need to be constantly hugged and cuddled by no one but me for a good 30 minutes after they wake up.  It brings up bad memories of 3 crying infants.  At least then, I could actually fit three babies on my lap.  Now, it is all out war for mommy’s lap complete with pushing, shoving and hair pulling.

There is a reprieve from the chaos. Preschool still rocks.  We also do pretty well on most outings (Well, except for that trip to the grocery store where daddy made the mistake of letting Marcus push the “shopper in training” cart.  The end of that story…I abandoned my cart full of groceries in the middle of an aisle while carrying two kicking and screaming toddlers out of the grocery store potato stack style).  Honestly, they do really well at the park, museums, mall and even the doctor’s office.  I love hearing people tell me how easy I make triplets look while out and about.  I definitely don’t make it look easy at home.  It is near impossible many days.

But, then there are the joys.  The delight they take in nature walks, a tea set, or live music is glorious.  When they all start singing their ABC’s together in the car, all the bad slips out the window.  When their personalities shine through, like when Josie shouts across the bridge to her brother, “Be careful Marcus, don’t fall in the water!” or Mia carelessly dances across the lawn while brushing the hair out of her face, it is truly all worth it.  And  of course when they hug each other and say “Hi Josie, I love you ” or “cuddle me mommy”, it melts your heart.

There are definitely “challenges” at this age.  And having triplets makes those challenges 3x harder.  But there are also a ton of rewards. And having triplets makes those 3x more enjoyable.

As you know, the triplets already had there first official day of preschool.  I had a countdown on my calander for this magical day.  I played out the glorious scenario in my head over and over again.  I would drop the little buggers off at school, they would eagerly settle into their classroom and I would immediately proceed to the nearest coffee shop and down a latte or two in celebration.  Of course this isn’t exactly how it played out.  I actually spent the kids first official day of preschool changing nasty diapers, consoling tears and attempting to nourish my sick self…you can’t exactly hide the fact your kids have diarrhea.  Luckily our tummy bugs cleared up quickly and the kids had their “first day” on the second school calendar day.

I can’t say it was fabulous for the kids.  Marcus and Josie were clinging to my legs in tears as I walked out the door.  Mia, big surprise, immediately hit the books and didn’t care one way or the other whether I stayed or left.  For me,  it was as fabulous as I imagined.  I had my latte, got oodles of work done for my business and felt amazingly free.  It was a glorious two hours!  The second day of school went a little better.  Mia ran full speed to her classroom, I barely saw her purple shirt as she disappeared through the classrooms doorway.  Josie was in much better spirits, waving bye-bye as she sat down at her art project.  Mama’s boy Marcus still shed some tears but was perfectly content and proud when I picked him up 2 hours later.  There is something comforting about them all being in the same classroom (and making up 1/3 of the class).   It is nice to know they have each other and it made my leaving them in tears a little less painful.  Next week the kids start attending 3 hours on Mon and Wed.

Hooray for preschool!

Remember pre-kids when you saw that grouchy unkept mom with two toddlers in her shopping cart snap at the Target cashier for no reason and you thought “what a bitch”.  I remember standing patiently in line sipping my Starbucks, tapping my cute kitten heel on the floor and glancing through the latest People, thinking “come on, does having kids really entitle you to have such a negative attitude…and how hard is it run a brush through your hair!”

Well, when it comes to the reality of parenthood, having triplets has been a slap in the face in many ways.  Ok, I totally get it…but I’m not grumpy ALL the time.  And I normally pride myself on being very nice to people when they make triplet comments, even when it is the 5th time I’ve heard “You must have your hands full” that day.  It is VERY rare for a bitchy comeback to come out of my mouth.

Therefore, I sincerely apologize to the nice lady at the pool the other day.  While attempting to change all 3 of my children out of their wet bathing suits (which by the way, pulling down swim diapers on a toddler is like peeling off tight leather pants, three times….not that I would know), and into dry diapers, clothes and shoes; my daughters ended up with either two right or two left feet.  Needless to say, they were a little “clumsy” while leaving the pool.  After attempting to get dressed myself I admit I looked a little “haggard” as I left the pool with 3 kickboards, an ENORMOUS beach bag and 3 toddlers in tow.  On the way down the steps Josie took a little spill and everyone in the vicinity heard her overdramatic reaction.  As usual, I try to look like the awesome put together triplet mom that I am and calmly sooth Josie as I notice her shoes don’t look right.  I bend over to try to fix her shoes as my pool bag contents spill across the ground.  A sweet mom of one comes over to lend a hand and picks up the wet disposable swim diapers for me giving me a “pitiful” look.  ”I know” I’m thinking, “its ridiculous I save these swim diapers but when you are buying for three and you swim as often as we do, they can get expensive (did you know they can go  through the washer and dryer several times in tact?  BTW, I assure you, I do not save the poopy ones)” .  Then it hits me, she  probably didn’t even notice the recycled swim diapers; rather she was probably thinking “wow, this poor mom has her hands ridiculously full, barely has her shorts zipped, and didn’t even get a chance to comb her hair.  She could really use a break today.”  As I realize Josie’s shoes cannot be fixed since she has both left feet, I surrender to the fact my girls are wearing the wrong shoes and return her second left foot.  At about this time the mom says “oh, that isn’t going to solve your problem because your girl’s have the wrong shoes on…they are both wearing only right or left feet.”  I smile up at her and “politely” say “Thank you.  I realize that but does it really look like I care?  Do you think it makes sense to attempt to fix this tiny shoe mix-up right now?”

At that, I grab my child and meet the rest of the clan at the van, not even looking to see the sweet young (stupid) mother’s reaction.  Whoops, just like that I became “that bitchy mom”.  Well, life goes on.  I’ll try to be more polite next time I’m ready to lose my mind.