Going off the Rails on a Crazy Train

It's been a few days since I have blogged. I was on such a roll, too!!

The kids are all sick and I am definitely coming down with it as well. I was home with all 3 kids for 2 days this week and you know what? It was manageable. I hadn't been home alone with all 3 in quite some time and was pleased that I was able to juggle it without going completely insane. There were a few hairy moments (aren't there always?) but Sofia seemed much more agreeable than usual which makes me wonder if a lot of her acting out is just wanting more of my time and attention.

We attempted to go out to dinner last night with all 3 children. Not only was it a dinner, but a sort of formal-ish dinner, celebrating my brother in law's promotion to Battalion Chief (had been a Fire Captain). We actually have gone out with the 3 kids in the evening before with success, but it's always a crap shoot. To make matters even more tenuous, the boys had skipped their afternoon nap, so I kind of knew going in that things could quickly go downhill.

The promotion ceremony took much longer than I anticipated, coupled with close to 2 hours of mingling and congratulations for all the people receiving promotions (and their friends and familes). By the time we reached the restaurant, we were about 3 hours into the whole experience. The boys had done the hold,-put-back-in-stroller-give-Snack-Trap-with-goldfish rotation at least 10 times by now and were quite restless. Meanwhile, the restaurant wasn't knocking me out with their service, seemingly ill prepared to handle a crowd of 30 in a private room. I waited and waited for them to bring bread - anything to distract the boys. The highchair straps were broken (both of them) and it being a sort of shi-shi place, they only had the 2.

Meanwhile, Sofia was in rare form, grabbing all the silverware around her and clacking it together at the most inapppropriate times. I finally got some milk for the boys and they were such a mess and so starving by this point that they would drink a little, throw it to the floor, drink a little, throw it to the floor. I saw where this train was headed and decided I was ready to get off. Steve was shmoozing with a musician friend sitting next to him, clueless as I tried to juggle the antics of 3 starving, tired children. I figured it was better to leave before we ordered the food as I suspected we'd be leaving in the middle of dinner. I felt really bad, but I was *done* *done* *done.* I like to think I am pretty good in these situations, but I just needed to go.

As we were leaving, they were bringing in the bread, approximately 45 minutes into the experience.

In the end, it was McDonald's drive thu for us and you know what? I'm ok with that. One thing that I've learned being a mom of 3 little ones is to always have a Plan B and keep your expectations pretty low.

The boys didn't get to bed until close to 9 p.m. and William kept waking up crying, so I brought him in our room, where I calmed him and he slept the whole night.

People were so funny at the ceremony, lots of commentary on the 3 kids.

We got "Wow, oh they're not twins, are they?" and

"They're pretty close in age, huh?"

Yeah, I'll say. About one minute. That's pretty close, right?