Changing the tide

Kid number one gets everything by the book,  kid number two you can test the water in your own theories while juggling the new responsibilities of two children and reading some of the books and mommy websites you learned about for number one.  But then comes number three,  do you stress about how many hours of sleep they get?  Maybe if they are not getting enough, which should be translated to if mommy isn't getting enough sleep.  Do you stress about when to start solid food? Well if you are living in a 5th wheel and your table won't fit a high chair then you probably start solid food the day you are sitting down to eat and your baby reaches over with its octopus arms and grabs your bowl or plate and pulls it into your lap to distract you from the other hand that reached inside the bowl or plate to get a handful of whatever yummy food you are consuming and stuffs it into their mouth. 
This is not exactly how Micah started solids but he does attempt this at least once a day.  The thing is there is no right way to do this parenting thing so glean what you can to get started, it is nice to have some background work to get your feet wet with on that first kid, but after that you really can only parent the way you parent. 
What's different about patenting Micah as opposed to Fia or Caeden?  Let me tell you. .. everything.  I don't buy baby food Micah eats whatever I'm eating and he loves it.  Why start him off on things we may never eat in our house, I want him to have a taste for the things I cook.  So I just give him tiny baby sized pieces of whatever is on my plate.  Or let him chew on a cracker because even though crackers are not that nutritious we eat them all the time here, and he still gets most of his nutrition from breast milk anyway.
What else is different? Well everything.  We live in a small space with a large dog who is currently shedding, no one in my family knows how to put away their shoes without being told to and there are tiny choking hazard Legos all over the place.  I'm cleaning constantly.  Yes that is different.  When it was just one kid I learned how to get my dishes done and started schedules in our house and found out how valuable they were.  The second kid taught me how to keep a house clean and make a working schedule that lasted us 3 years and made me proud to have people over whenever they showed up. True it wasn't prefect but it was good enough that I wasn't embarrassed.
Now there is Micah and this much smaller living space and I'm finding that to live comfortable in this space I need to be cleaning it constantly.  Which has lead me to the understanding that I can indeed keep a clean house!  Does that mean that Micah is always clean and never has anything he shouldn't in his mouth?  No.  Yesterday he had a piece of paper in his mouth while chewing in his dad's shoe lace and his shirt was covered in a layer of Graham cracker drool and topped with dog hair that had stubbornly stuck to the floor even after I swept.  None of that stops us from having a great day.  I just have to actually have designated play clothes and going out clothes for my baby as well as for my older children.
Right now I'm nursing Micah in my robe while the older two are playing with Legos and waiting for breakfast and the 5th wheel is trashed. .. But today is going to be a great day!  I'm so excited to get started on it.  :)
Perspective is everything my friends!