Kid's close together?

I have a 4 year old, 2 3/4 year old, and a 15 month old. Logistics of naptime: we have a gate that we lock so that the others aren't roaming around. I put my son (the 4 year old) in his room (generally not napping but every once in a while will), I put my 2 3/4 year old daughter in her bed. And then put my 15 month old to bed. Shopping logistics: We generally go shopping as a family. It's the only way that I have been able to shop in peace without racing to catch up to my 4 year old or my 2 3/4 year old since neither child likes to be in a stroller or the shopping cart. Good luck in figuring out your logistics! Jen

I suppose I just need to be satisfied with my best effort. Mostly I am. I do find it irritating that the grocery stores in my area aren't a little more accomodating. On rare occassions I spot a double seater grocery cart at the far corner of the parking lot. But those tend to be designed for children older than 8 months anyway and I don't really want to pack up all my kids and get to the store only to discover I can't find that one cart that might make it possible for me to actually shop. Maybe if my 8 month old weren't HUGE for his age I could still carry him in the front pack and then have my two year old walk and just try to go really fast. It's kinda funny when the whole family goes shopping together. We get comments like "are ALL these kids yours???" With regard to naptimes, I suppose I should count myself lucky to live in Southern Arizona. We've already had a couple of 100 degree days. In a pinch I can just take my kids outside for 5 minutes to play. The heat gets them so tired they go right down for nap. Then all I have to worry about is dehydration and skin cancer. :)

Hi, I have three kids under the age of 2yrs. My boys are 7mths apart and my daughter just turned one and now we are expecting our first bio child in August. So, in all fairness, I don't shop with any of them much at all. My husband will either come home with groceries or I will go out after they are asleep and fine what we need. As for napping, two of mine will nap. I take them upstairs and leave the other two year old down stairs with gate on until I come back. Good for me, I just lay them down, turn music on and say night night. That's it. Love those little ones. As for my other one that won't nap for me. I am adopting him as an older child, lots of authority issues with a new mommy. I make him read books or quiet play. Anyother questions, let me know. Kristy

Well, I only have 2. They are 20 months apart. I shop alone. That is one of my times to get out of the house and away from the kids! My dh hates doing the shopping and he knows I can't get it all done with the kids. (I only go every 2 weeks. Well, I run to the quick grocery once a week for milk and fresh produce.) As for naps: If you plan to put them tio sleep, plan on doing that pretty much forever... My sister put my nephew to sleep. She was still doing it when he started to school. He could not go to sleep without someone with him. My kids are both in cribs, so I just lay them down and turn on music. (Although Spencer is only 2 months so not old enough to get into stuff.) When I need to leave the room, I do so knowing that I have completely child proofed the areas Cameron has access to. He is a climber and into everything, so I am very careful to make sure it is always safe for him. I used to do in home child care and, at one time, had 5 kids 3 and under... I had to have my home child proofed to survive that. Good luck! My 2 under 2 are hard. Hard enough that I say we will wait for #3 until these two are a few years older!

Our youngest two kids are 12 months apart, and my next one up is older chronologically, but not developmentally. Some days I swear I have at least 2 more kids than I really do. It's like those weather reports that give you the actual temperature and the 'feels like' temperature! LOLMy 2nd Ds's foster mom was great...but she really surprised me when it came to nap/bed time. There was a short little song, a little hug and then she popped him right into bed. There was always low music playing in the room (2 babies shared a room) so it was good to have some background noise. But I remember thinking how cold that was...a mini-song and then bed. No cuddling and giggling, just *poof* and he was in bed. But then I realized that she had 4 children under the age of 2, all of whom had special needs, plus her older children in the home. She specializes in caring for medically fragile foster babies (ie: drug affected/addicted at birth, premature infants, etc.), so she could not provide adequately for each infant if she spent even 15 minutes snuggling each one to sleep. By the time she got the last one down to sleep, the first one would be waking up. She'd end up chasing her tail! So I started doing what she did, and have made other times to snuggle and cuddle together with each child. I have 5 kids, and have had foster kids in and out amongst all of them, too. Sometimes you just can't spend that much time at nap/bed times with each kid. Now I work hard to spend individual time with the kids, but not at nap/bed times. We still give hugs and kisses, sing and pray, then lights out, but story time and snuggles are not in the bed room. Additionally I've found that my kids with whom I've not cuddled in bed at bed time actually go to sleep better and more happily than those with whom we had more elaborate bed time routines. Go figure!As to shopping...! If I have to have kids with me I make sure to have either my Dh with me or another competent helper. (Teenaged nieces have been a boon in my life!!) Often we shop singly; either Dh or I take the list and do the major shopping. We shop for 2 weeks at a time, and can save gas if only one of us goes as we can take The Little Car vs. The Van. Sometimes as an extra special treat one child goes with the shopping parent, but I can't keep track of them all and my stress level becomes astronomic if I have all of them to keep track of in the store.Nope, this isn't what I had vaguely envisioned for my middle aged years...but neither was the gray hair, extra pounds, wrinkles, memory loss, chin hairs...oops, was that TMI?? LOL

Thanks everybody for the responses. I guess I just mostly wanted to connect with others in the same boat. I have been putting the boys in their crib awake more often lately. I still try to get in a couple of minutes of snuggles before if I can. I don't worry too much about leaving a single child alone for a few minutes. At this point, our play area is pretty solidly child proofed. It does worry me to leave two kids together on their own though. It's just such an unpredictable situation. It only takes a split second for someone to get hurt. I remember with my daughter I would literally follow her around on my hands and knees when she started pulling up on furniture and learning to walk. That's just not feasible with my boys. The shopping thing still irritates me. I have plenty of "time" during the day to run errands. And for the most part my kids are really good about that. So I feel like my only limitation is that they don't make shopping carts with three seats. That means I have to give up time with my husband after the kids go to sleep to run to the grocery story. AAAHHHH! Annoying. :) mmdd2b - I read your post to my husband and his response was "wow, they've got us beat!". For all but about 5 weeks of my pregnancy, I had two babies in the house. And my bio son was born in mid-Sept so I was pretty pregnant during the summer. I'm feeling exhausted just thinking about your situation. Congrats to you!!!!! :)