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Child One V. Child Three - A Lesson in Expectations

As my brood grew, I had some rude awakenings when it came to my expectations of myself for the kind of parent I wanted to be.
For example, food, with my children progressed like this:

Child One:
Exclusively Breastfed- no formula for this crunchy baby!
Homemade, all natural, organic baby food
First foods- veggies; no crackers, chips, cookies, ice cream, candy, mac n cheese, etc
No juice

Child Two:
Exclusively breastfed, with a tiny bit of formula when mommy is away
Homemade baby food
First foods- fruits; some "healthy-ish" mac n cheese, convenience dinners, and little tastes of treats
Juice cut with water

Child Three:
Breastfed- Formula as needed
Rice cereal from a box, purchased baby food 
First foods- whatever he'll eat; french fries are a vegetable, right?
Juice is a now a staple.

The lifestyle choices I made for them were to reflect the best studies that show that one on one interaction, hands-on activities, music, singing, dancing, and playing will be the most beneficial to their developing, impressionable, I'm sorry I fell asleep for a second there. (Occupational hazard: no sleep for the foreseeable future). Anyway, lifestyle choices:

Child One:
Gentle, no cry sleep method
Routine
Baby wearing
No TV or movies, even educational ones
Carefully chosen books for bedtime
Lots of one on one interaction
Singing, dancing and active, imaginative play
Alphabet cards, number cards, hands-on educational activities like drawing in pudding on a cookie sheet and other Pinterest worthy ideas
Potty trained by 2
Positive Reinforcement for good behavior

Child Two:
Gentle sleep training, with a little bit of cry it out (out of necessity)
Light routine
Baby often near mommy
TV and movies, as long as they're educational
Books for bedtime
Some one on one interaction
Active play, when not interrupted by older sibling
Potty trained by 3
Positive Reinforcement for- I SAID NO!


Child Three:
I'm sorry, kiddo, mommy will be RIGHT back. 
Wakes up sometime, goes to bed sometime, and in between something else happens. You know; routine.
Baby in the same room as mommy, usually
For the love of all that is, watch Despicable Me so I can get some stuff done.
Book, singular, for bedtime
One on.....play with your brother, please! Your sister is jumping off the couch again.
See "TV and movies"
Potty trained? God help me when that day comes....
Seriously?!?!?!?

My "cleanliness next to godliness" paradigm became somewhat challenging:

Child One:
House and toys sanitized nightly
Bath every night
Whole house cleaned every week
Laundry washed in Dreft, folded, and put away twice a week
Dishes done every night

Child Two:
Toys sanitized once a month
Bath most nights
Whole house cleaned once a month
Laundry washed in hypoallergenic detergent, folded and put away once a week
Dishes done every other night

Child Three:
Sanitized? 
Bath at least a couple times a week
Whole house cleaned once a.....year? Yes, once a year. Hopefully I'll clean sometime this year.
Laundry washed. Once a week. I hope. 
We have no clean dishes yet, so I'll wash a few plates for supper tonight. We also have leftover princess plates from the last birthday party, so on second thought, let's use those so I can throw them when we are done.

With each child, my expectations, worry, and chaos grew exponentially harder to reign in. Luckily, so did the love.
They'll only be little so long- as the saying goes, "the days are long, but the years are short."
No matter what changes in my efforts to be the best mother I can be for all three, if they all know that I love them up to the moon and back, I'll call it a success.


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