Our last week of summer break, as a full family of six, was last week. Sadly, Phil is returning to work this morning for a few short weeks before taking his paternal leave. With an open week, Phil actually had the idea to create a “fun week” with the kids. We allowed them to be a part of the planning- and boy, their suggestions did not disappoint.
The Activities for the Week
Monday: A trip to the local waterpark
Tuesday: Water fun day with friends + ice cream for dinner!
Wednesday: Six Flags Great America (arguably my favorite one!)
Thursday: See Despicable Me 4 in theaters
Friday: Chuck E. Cheese (arguably my least favorite- but nonetheless, every child’s dreamland)
How Things Truthfully Went With Four
The week went smoothly- as smoothly as you can get for life with four children, 6 and under. It surprisingly wasn’t as exhausting as I anticipated either. I fully expected to have no energy and surely regretting our choice to plan this “fun week” by Wednesday. But I must say, our smart thinking to front load the start of the week and end with some slower activities definitely spared us. While our patience with one another was wearing thin by Friday (I’ll save that for another blog post, another time!), I truly think having pre-planned out the week, with the kids knowledge, held us accountable to seeing the week through, which lowered a lot of the stress.
The amount of empty threats and “we will not be going”‘s were flowing endlessly. The amount of meltdowns, tears, and complaining were also flowing endlessly. But what more can you really expect from small children constantly on the go for the week? They had an absolute blast and woke up each morning anticipating that day’s activity. Jax had seen Six Flags on YouTube and had been asking all summer to go. Colton is newly obsessed with Minions, so he thoroughly enjoyed seeing Despicable Me 4 in theaters. And Taylor was the first one to throw out Chuck E. Cheese, which no one could unhear.
Living that newborn life while out and about doing all the things was interesting. Truly, when taking a newborn anywhere, I have learned to just anticipate the worst. Anticipate a ton of crying, anticipate more nursing sessions than you’d like, anticipate not being able to put the baby down, anticipate a blow out (although, I was ill prepared for this one!), anticipate it all! That way, when things go better than that, you are pleasantly surprised and all seems fine in the world- HA! Sadie honestly did amazing! We lounged by the pool, she had a blow out at the ice cream shoppe, she nearly ate and slept 90% of the trip to Six Flags and perfectly timed wanting to eat each time others were in line for rides, I baby wore during the movies where she cried minimally three times, and she stayed nice and covered in germ infested Chuck E. Cheese.
By the end of the week, we were tired, our patience was minimal, we were broke, but many memories were surely made. The kids had such a great time and so did we. Spending so much present, undistracted time with our kids for the entire week, doing the things that they wanted, was truly a great way to end summer!
My Thoughts Behind It All
While we were out, I had many people comment how little the baby was, how were we already out and about, how were we managing her being out doing these things with us. Many of you were blowing up my ego in my DMs, which the hype is always appreciated. But the truth is, this past week simply felt like a no brainer. It just felt like another week of plain ol’ motherhood.
My job as a Mom is to spend time with my kids. It’s to love them. Experience life together. Make memories together.
And at the end of the day, life didn’t slow down for our other three kiddos simply because a new baby came into the picture. If anything, they are so excited to make her a part of everything we do. Sure, life inside the home has changed and we’re moving at slower paces. Everyone has had to relearn a new level of patience and understanding and they’re all adjusting so well!
I have every excuse in the book to sit back, kick my feet up, relax, and not do a damn thing. And it would be more than okay! It was be justified- shit! I just birthed a human six weeks ago. And surely, my kids could come to some sort of understanding. But ultimately, they didn’t ask for a new baby to come in and turn their world upside down. They didn’t deserve to sit inside the house the rest of the summer on the account of a new baby. Our job is to make sure life is balanced for them all. As much as they have to learn life with a newborn, our newborn has to learn life with three older siblings (which means a LOT of noise- sorry girl!) Therefore, to me, there’s no excuse in the world. There is no reason for me to stop doing the things we did prior to (within reason of course!). I simply cannot help but feel that it is my job to keep their world as similar to what it was- with a tiny addition.
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