My Five Minute Child

I sit here writing almost in tears and I know I only have five minutes to write this.  I am writing this in hopes that in a couple of years I can look back on this and laugh, not to whine about poor me or make anyone who isn't a Mommy yet upset.  Before I go on please KNOW that I love each and every one of my children and NEVER EVER EVER would I want things to be different, but holy CRAP this is hard!  Never did I imagine things would be this exhausting, never did I imagine that one of my children would take 89% of my time.

I love my Aaden with ALL my heart and I love his spunk and energy, but he is a five minute child.  What does that mean you ask?  NOTHING holds his attention longer than five minutes.  No movie, no toy, no art project, no box of puzzles, no helping Mommy, no dancing and singing around the house, the only thing that might last a touch longer is destruction!

Not only does nothing keep his attention he only enjoys things that are dangerous and messy.  He is not a toy kind of kid. If, yes IF I make it into the bathroom for two minutes alone I KNOW that once I turn the corner to the living room he WILL be into something.  Most recently he has learned to scale the kitchen counter and grab whatever he can.  Chapstick, food, my phone, anything he can get to.  If I make my way into the garage to do laundry he follows through the dog door and wants to help.. "A-Day do it!"  To which of course I let him, but that means it takes three times as long and the other two are inside without me even longer.  If I am cooking he will cry at my feet until I finally allow him to get a stool (out of the toy dungeon in the garage where we hide most toys these days.)  Oh and INDEPENDENT no longer can I put on his carseat buckles, shirt or socks and shoes.. "A-Day do it!"

I love love love my boy to pieces, but he is ALWAYS at my side.  I try to eat, he wants to share my plate.  I fold laundry and he helps, BUT then once the clothes are in the basket folded and I turn my back for a split second he flips the basket and uses it as a stool.  Their room is almost empty, each time he mis-uses a toy it enters the toy dungeon.  We have a baby gate on their door, but yes he can scale that too.

He has now gone four days with no nap, mostly in part to the toddler bed switcheroo we did.  Both boys were climbing out of their cribs, so to avoid the looming danger of falling we switched.  I could write a whole post about that, but I will save it until we have more days under our belt and more stories, but honestly bed time is not going all that bad.

Most of all I feel bad for the other boys who are NOT getting all the attention they should from me.  I hold Hudson, and guess what "hold A-Day for a second Mommy?"  *Sigh.  This too shall pass I know, but right now as my boy is scaling the side of my chair trying to push buttons on the laptop I have a tear in my eye and a smile.  It's a mix of emotions and I cannot wait for this phase to pass AND to have nap time back.  Noah is getting to nap in Hudson's room which is working out, but Aaden's naptime is pure destruction of the bedroom and me putting him back in bed about 50 times until finally it has been 1.5 hours and nap time is over.

I know that a lot of this destruction and craziness is coming from being overly tired, he is the kid who when he is tired acts more hyper instead of sleepy.  ANY advice you could give on my five minute child would be of great help.  The best for him is getting out and doing things, but with three little kids it's not easy to get out nor is their really anywhere we can go other than the park.

UPDATE
Both boys ASKED to go Nite-Nite and went to sleep within five minutes without a peep.  In separate rooms of course, but still I am one happy Mommy!!!!!  Hoping a lot of this craziness the last few days is from the lack of sleep.  I sure love my sweet boy, but Mama needs a tiny break every once in awhile.