5:00pm

I really have a routine that works with our three children right now.  Hubby is in the home stretch of graduate school and so that involves many long days of studying and often I handle evening dinner, bath, bedtime routine by myself.  It involves a lot of jugging, and the children have to be troopers at times, we have a system that works for what we need.

All that being said, there is usually a rough patch right around 5:00pm.  This is when the babies are getting tired but we still have an hour before bath time, and sometimes they just want to be held.  Caroline especially loves to be held when she is tired or upset.  The problem is, if I hold Caroline at 5:00pm, Howard is just fussy enough, that he wants to be held too... and the two don't want to be held together.  They each want to be the only child in my arms.  In addition, not infrequently, Tracey will see the overflowing pile of children in my lap and arms, and she also will say she wants to be held, because its been a long day and everyone needs a big hug at that time of day.

As much as I would love to say that we all just cuddle together for a good twenty minutes and everyone leaves refreshed... that is not at all what happens.  Usually I end up not holding anyone because I cannot hold everyone.  Or I end up alternating children about every minute trying to keep the crying at bay.  Or, I just let everyone cry for the ten minutes it takes me to get dinner on the table, and hope that really they were just hungry and they weren't crying because they wanted to be held.

All that to say, a friend came over to visit yesterday right about 4:30 and stayed for an hour... and it was absolutely amazing to have some extra hands during that 5:00pm meltdown.  When Caroline wanted to be held, she sat on my friend's lap having her back rubbed for over twenty minutes... and since I wasn't the one holding her, Howard and Tracey never asked to be held because their sister wasn't hogging Mama's arms.  I was able to make dinner and visit with my friend and all the kids were happy.

This is why husbands are supposed to get home right around 5:00... because children know that reinforcements are on the way, and their behavior requires two-man parenting.

It was so wonderful to see Caroline get the cuddles that she needs without interruption from her brother and sister.  I wonder if my friend can visit every day around 5:00pm?