Three
Just because it’s the question everyone asks, I thought I had better let you all know how 6 weeks of three has been going. We’re still not far away enough from late pregnancy for me to think of a much better answer than, “Better than 2 while being a miserable whale!” :)
No, three hasn’t yet undone me. Actually, I haven’t found the difficulty increase to the degree that going from 1 to 2 did. But, I do think that the age differences matter and that the baby stage is easier if the others are out of the infant/toddler stage. I still have 2 in diapers, but Jaeger will be three in May and he can communicate fully and climb in and out of the vehicle by himself (the two great achievements, in my mind). Hans was 21 months when Jaeger was born and could do neither. I do like the closer-spacing, because the boys are already mostly equals when they play, and they are good friends. So, close-spacing (which I personally define as less than two years) is double-hard during the baby phase, but easier in the other phases (that’s my prognosis, anyway, since we haven’t gotten very far yet). And the baby phase is, after all, the shortest phase. Ilse and Jaeger are 32 months apart, only one month short of a full year’s difference between the two gaps. I don’t have “three under three” or even “three, three and under,” and I don’t yet have a baby AND have to do school. It’s probably a pretty good time for doing three; not that it was our plan, of course. Our plans would have us with an almost-one-year-old boy right now: 3, 3 and under — last year. No, Ilse is God’s plan and we are thankful for her.
But, I am not about to call three “easy” or raise my arms in triumph after 5 1/2 weeks. :) I think I have at least learned that much after two. :) No, before I proclaim all the tales of “three being the hardest,” to be a bunch of hooey, I will wait until I have three moving and talking. That’s when I think my mettle will be tried. :) Of course, it might not even take that long. We’ll see how things go once I get back into the groove of actually keeping up with the housework! I haven’t managed to get out of the “fighting fires” stage yet, but I’m hoping to extinguish them all this week.
So, there are my thoughts on three so far. Short version: don’t let the people scare you, Elly. :) And, we’ll see what Kirsti thinks in a month or two with her passel now being three, three and under. :)
