July 23, 2008
I Did It!
I Did It!
I have successfully gotten five children out the door and buckled into the car all by myself twice now.
The first time was yesterday when I got them out, picked up my husband and left him in charge of the kids while I raced to my doctor's office a few minutes before they closed to verify that I did, sadly, have a UTI as I had suspected. As if recovering from child birth weren't bad enough by itself!
Today was more fun, but also more work. I decided that we all needed to get out, so I suggested to the bigger kids that if they were to straighten up the living room, sort out the library books and put their shoes on, we might be able to make it to the library. That spurred them into action, because they love a trip to the library.
I think it took us about an hour from my proposal of the outing until we were actually headed out the door, but we weren't working under the pressure of any schedule so that was fine. The baby slept in the car on the way there, in the sling almost the entire time walking around the library (except when I sat down for story time, but she nursed and went back to sleep) and so she was primed for a wide awake, screaming fit on the car ride home. Fortunately, the ride isn't too long. In the meantime though, we got to show her off to some of our favorite librarians and check out a new supply of approximately 50 books. It always feels good to get fresh reading materials. I wanted to stop and get something for myself, but I knew I wouldn't actually have a chance to read anything right now and so passed by the grown-up section.
I'm not sure how an outing where we have to be some place at a certain time will go, nor am I excited about venturing out to the grocery store with all five children in tow, but I'm glad to know that I can make it out the door and bring them all home in one piece.
I am so glad you got out of the house and had a decent time of it! I still haven't mastered getting three little ones very many places on time.
Posted by: Amy at July 23, 2008 11:36 PMThat is definitely an accomplishment. I'm glad it went well. :)
Posted by: Jennifer at July 24, 2008 07:42 AMYou go, girl! It takes us at least an hour to get out of the house. Sometimes it takes an hour for the three-year-old to get his shoes on. I hope the oldest two can get into and out of their carseats independently, 'cuz three carseats is really all I can imagine handling. I'm looking into a backless booster for the oldest, so maybe he can do his by himself. It's too hard for him to find the buckle when he's in the full-size booster seat (at least for the fastening part). Daniel's getting too long for his infant carseat, so we may be reclaiming Isaac's convertible for a rear-facing seat and moving him into the belt-positioning booster if he's tall enough. *Sigh* I hate carseats. I'm so glad we have lots of places we can just walk to (though that would probably be plenty tricky with five!)
Posted by: Lenise at July 24, 2008 07:54 AMActually, even my three year old can buckle up her five point harness most of the time. Getting them to do their own carseats was a priority. She can't always manage, but she gets it 95% of the time without help, which is a huge thing for me. I know you have even more carseat issues than I do, since I can work the buckles without pain, but maybe your husband could work with the Jay to teach him to do up his buckles?
Posted by: Jordana at July 24, 2008 08:24 AM
Jordana Adams, Chief Pontificator