Number Three

My third child will be 18 mos old this week and in this time I've made what I feel is a pretty scientific conclusion about third children. I believe that third children must be genetically altered at conception. I think they are altered so that from the beginning they are aware that they are the third child in a family and as such they are joining a mom and dad who are already exhausted and as a result very weak. I think they know from day one what their position is and exactly what they can get away with. My Maggie was number 3, and I was excited about her from the start, well minus the 2 hours I cried in the bathroom. From day one I knew she would be my last baby and I was thrilled to be having one more little baby that I would spend more time with, hold more, play with more, and all around enjoy more than I had my other two. I was going to do it the way I wanted to this time. No stress, no time crunches, no worrying about silly things like the house or meals. I was going to be devoted to this baby. Well, things didn't exactly work out like I had planned. For one thing, Maggie came early and my second child wasn't even two yet, so I was pretty much devoted to two babies, completely stressed, the house was a chaotic mess, and meal time was awful because for some reason no one else followed my vision and they still insisted on me preparing meals. Maggie was an awesome baby she never cried, although she really never had to because she had a mom, dad and 2 sisters running to her for her every need. She even got a bottle in the night until she was 7 mos old because every time she would fuss we'd get her a bottle for fear she'd wake her sisters. She slept in our room for the same reason, these are two things than never happened with our other girls. They were in our room for about 2 weeks becuase I could never sleep with them near me, and they never got a bottle in the night past 3 mos. But Maggie was the baby, and so the first months of her life went by. And then Maggie learned to move and then her real personality came out. From the time she could crawl, she could climb, and from the time she could walk she could climb even higher. She has spent the last 6 mos climbing anything and everything all day, she does nothing and I mean nothing else. If it looks dangerous she is interested. As I'm writing this she is sitting in the middle of the island in our kitchen, which is 4 ft off the ground, with a pen writing on my Halloween decorations. Now everyone is probably wondering why I would let her do such a thing, the honest answer is I have no excuse. All I can say is that if I took her off of and down from all of these places I'd never get anything done all day. She climbs on top of our couch and sits in our front window, she climbs onto every bed in our house and jumps, she climbs on top of every toy, every chair, every shelf, she climbs on EVERYTHING. I would never have allowed this with my other two, but I'm telling you she has known from day one that I am a worn women, they have broken me. She even knows at what point in the day she can get away with things. For instance, she knows by the time supper comes around she can rub all of her food into her hair and I won't even notice, and I might not even wash it all out. This is something she never ever does at breakfast or lunch. The child knows that by supper I've had it and she can do just about anything. Now I've already had to make the embarassing call to poison control with her, turned my head for one minute, and I'm waiting for the embarassing trip to the ER when I lie and tell them that of course I never allow her to climb like that, i just missed her this one time..............all I can say is that if I'm this worn down now I can't imagine what it will be like when she is a teenager and I've already gone thru 2 of those.................