Gone by fast (in a good way)

Today my wife and I celebrate our seventh wedding anniversary, and by “celebrate” of course I mean “may attempt to have a half a glass of wine before making every effort to get to bed as early as humanly possible (or as early as our little gaggle of offspring will allow us to).”

I kid. (Kind of.) In all seriousness, developmental milestones are being hit and corners are being turned left and right by each of our children. I mentioned off-handedly last week that the baby has passed three months of age, which truly is a momentous watershed. My wife has often proclaimed that the first three months are the hardest, whereas the three after that are pretty much her favorite, and our most recent addition to the family has been no exception. In the past couple of weeks he has had a few nights here and there during which he slept a good six hours overnight. Of course, calling that a full night’s sleep would entail deeming 4 in the morning as an acceptable time for the night to come to an end; funny how going to bed at midnight and getting up at 6 seems reasonable enough, but going to bed at 10 and being awoken at 4 is a much more brutal happenstance, but there we are. Still, baby steps (literally)! All of the children going to bed at age-appropriate times and snoozing right on through til the sun comes up may not be the way of things right now, but we can see encouraging signs that it’s on its way.

In anticipation of that glorious day (er, night) we will very soon be assembling and installing the little girl’s new toddler bed. She may or may not start sleeping in it straightaway, but we can at least get her used to the idea of it so that when we evict her from the crib to make room for her little brother it’s not a complete shock to her. Then again, given her predilection for mimicking her older brother in every way, and the fact that he sleeps in a bed rather than a crib, she make take to it pretty eagerly. Update to follow!

And speaking of the little guy, the ebb and flow of his disposition between incredibly needy/jealous of his younger siblings/regressing to babyish behavior and responsible/helpful/proud to be the big brother seems to be shifted much more towards the latter recently. It’s not that cut and dry, obviously, and he certainly has his moments, but on balance he’s been really, really good lately about cutting the younger ones some slack, letting them have their way, and just generally being a team player (specifically being on “Team Mommy and Daddy” as opposed to lining up on the other side with “Team Sons (and Daughter) of Anarchy”).

But even when everybody is in a good mood and no one is spoiling for a fight over the timing of a bath or the number of stories to be read before being tucked in, it remains a bit of an exhausting gauntlet to get all three kids settled in for the night, every night. So my wife and I will continue to prize the comfort of our own pillows above much else for the foreseeable future. It’s a happy little family and a happy little life we’ve made for ourselves over the past seven years. By the time we hit the big 10 year mark or so, maybe we’ll have restored our energy reserves enough to properly enjoy it.

(P.S. I am, as is my wont, exaggerating a bit about the Fatigue That Crushes Everything In Its Path. My wife and I did go out last weekend for grown-up conversation over a late lunch of sushi, which was deliciously decadent. We toasted our anniversary a bit early, because it falls mid-week this year and this coming weekend we have a big family visit with more of my relatives finally meeting the baby. So please do not misunderstand and assume that we are failing to stop and smell the roses. Or the roe, as the case may be. We’re doing our best and it’s pretty good, at that.)