Is it true that by your third child you let them play with knives?....

[back2backboys]

"....letting them play with knives" is a saying that a friend of mine quotes, and it's also the topic of jokes at the playground. Endless stories of how we wouldn't let our first child enter the fresh air outside of our house until he was 6 weeks old. Granted he did spend his first 10 days in the NICU....but whatever. When our second baby was born, we took him to the beach at seven DAYS old. He slept like only a baby can with the ocean breeze blowing on him, the sand washed off that night in the bath, we got the day out of the house that we desperately needed, and he actually survived!

There was an incredible break in the weather last week. The park was loaded with kids! Moms with their first babies and those of us with our second, third and some even with their fourth! A mom with her first toddler was with us....and of course he fell. He had a sand rash down the side of his face and a scrape on his forehead that was oozing a little blood. She remained calm and cleaned him up, but her comment was "I hope this clears up before my husband gets home, or he'll kill me"

All of the kids were having accidents, both of mine included. For God's sake they've been locked up in cold weather for months. They were running, jumping and climbing as fast and as hard as they could. Those of us with multiples mostly stayed parked on our bench assessing if there was blood, a need for bandages, or an apology owed to the other child.

We came home for dinner, my partner meets us and this is our family conversation:

A-man: starts pointing to his head and then the ground. Mumbling "me banged head on ground".

My partner: looks at me "what happened?"

Me: "Oh, he fell off of the jungle gym. He was only up on the third row though."

My partner: "What happened to J-man's face?"

Me: "Oh, he got hit in the face with a swing."

My Partner: Starts laughing "See the second child changes everything."

Now for the record, I did get up and sprint to A-man when he fell off of the jungle gym. My "Mommy Pants" haven't loosened up that much....yet.

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