" . . . and here I thought it was going to get easier!"

Yep that would be the neighbor's take. "I thought it was going to get easier for you . . ." Yea, not so much. As you can clearly see it's been over 2 months since I last posted. Easier? Not by a friggin long shot! Over the past 2 nights, I've probably averaged about 4 hours of sleep total. No joke. The kids run all day long and stop long enough to sleep a few hours before demanding "Barney" or "Blue's Clues" at 3:00 am. "Nope. Sorry. Barney is sleeping." "On-Demand." Really?! On-Demand. You are killing me smalls (x3). At least when Riley wakes up in the middle of the night, he climbs into bed and goes to sleep. And yes, before you ask if I have tried, to um, medicate them? Yep. I so did. And no,  it so didn't work. Caden, God love him, is freakin wired. He was dx with asthma last week and is on a high dose steroid regime (today last day, yea team). He has been insane or "crazy" as he tells me. Running around, eating bowls upon bowls of "cereal with milk", singing nursery rhymes at the top of his lungs (also at 3:00 am), and sleeping in 10 minute segments. To add insult to injury? He has followers. His siblings think his antics are so hilarious, they are more than game to join in.
So what is life like in the 2012?! Busy and busier. We have PT on Monday (Caden), Mommy-n-Me (trio), OT/PT (Austy and Caden) on Tuesdays, OT (Riley) on Wednesdays, OT/PT (Austy and Caden) on Thursdays, OT (Riley) on Fridays. Riley goes to Crown Valley Elementary M-F, with Friendship Builders (social skills) class on Tues & Thurs and is working on transitioning to a typical preschool class at Oak Grove Elementary on M-W-F afternoons. Lots of gas and lots of "wee sing silly songs". Sometimes the children are in just the finest of moods and we resort to feeding them (by throwing) cereal or fishes into their car seats. Mitch was screaming for a band aid from the backseat the other day that Grammie, not finding anything of the sort, handed her a tampon. So of course, the boys just had to have their own "torpedoes" too. Dear God, had that been anybody other than my mom, I would have fired her. For heaven's sake, don't make me explain to a five year old, what exactly this particular "torpedo" is used for and why we can't play with it in the bathtub or (gasp) the pool!
JMJ. . . I just love to listen to the ladies at work complain about their children's schedules, hectic lives, etc. Whatever! (Oh, my bad, according to Riley this is a "bad word and we don't use this in our house!" :))  and F*** is french :)!
Christmas was an absolute blast this year. Our tree was set up and half way "undressed" the following morning despite the gate that was supposed to keep the tree upright and well, "dressed" for lack of a better word. We had at least 5 ornament casualties per day, this despite time outs, widening of the zone, etc. The fisher price manger scene was a big hit, though I'm hopeful baby Jesus found his way back to the stable before it got picked up. The "real" manger scene managed to make it up the night before Christmas. A few days later I found Mitch playing house with all of the figurines. "His name, Mom?" "Joseph." "Oh. Joseph."
We did make our way to see Santa on a couple of occasions. No tears :) The kids asked for a variety of things: Riley- "the Lego's with the bombs" (They aren't real Mom, they are made out of plastic. They are pretend!); Austin- "cookies"; Mitch- "Santa, open doors Disneyland. Papa, Kayla, go jungle cruise!"; Caden- "PAD" (as in IPAD, as in "sorry Charlie, no 2 year old in my house is getting an IPAD for Christmas!"). Yep, so Santa made his way down our chimney on Christmas Eve with plasma cars, bikes (with helmets), a bounce house, and Lego's. Gotta be honest, the bounce house has already paid for itself . . . and we haven't even had a rainy day yet. We jump almost daily! And, no to answer your unspoken questions- no broken bones, no stitches, no ER visits- YET, and hopefully not in the near future, we don't have time in the schedule for that!
Lots of kid updates and pictures coming soon, but it is late and I have a vacation day at work tomorrow morning . . .