Loving the Manning Triplets: Adventures with Violet

I've been living as a single mother of one for almost two weeks now. After the initial shock of losing her brother and sister, Violet adapted really quickly. She's a smart chick; it didn't take her long to realize that the absence of her brother and sister meant that she got complete undivided attention from everyone. She is totally good with that.

The first week was a bit stressful because I was preparing for the movers to come pick up all of our things. They came on Tuesday and began packing and by Thursday afternoon, they were out the door leaving me in an almost empty house with one child and three kitties. A friend has brought over a twin bed for me to sleep in for the next month or so and Violet is sleeping in a Pack n' Play. Other than that, we have a closet with our clothes and toys, toiletries, and a few kitchen items. It's definitely bare bones living but, to be honest, it feels a little like freedom. If anything, this experience is making me realize we have too dang much stuff.

Everything Violet owns for 6 weeks.

My cozy little room.

Horse sheets to help me dream about my Old Kentucky Home.

Life with one? Compared to the 2:3 parent to child ratio I'm accustomed to, 1:1 seems pretty great. The first time I took Violet out of the house, I grabbed her and the diaper bag, got her loaded up in the car seat and walked back into the house to get the rest of the stuff. There was no more stuff to get. It totally threw me off making only one trip to the car and leaving. One child is so much more portable than three. It's absolutely amazing.

So far, we've been to the indoor water park at our gym (yes, our gym is amazing), I've dropped her off at the gym daycare while I worked out, we tried mommy and me yoga, we walked around the neighborhood yard sale, and we had a girl's day shopping in Denver. I've been trying to make the most of the part of my family that's here to help alleviate the pain of the three big pieces that are missing.

Girls' day out in Denver. Lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.

Violet checking out the splash park.

Ready to play. Thanks for the swimsuit, Nana!

The most amazing lemonade stand I've ever seen at our neighborhood yard sale.

One of the things I was most apprehensive about with all of this was taking Violet to day care for the first time. The kids at home are being watched by a nanny (our neighbor's daughter) for the summer, but we couldn't afford a nanny in two places at once. We are not made of money. The on-base day care is very affordable, so I decided to enroll Violet there for six weeks. The first day, I expected her to have a really difficult time watching me walk out the door. Nope. As soon as I took her in, she made a break for all of the toys and never looked back. She is absolutely loving it. That's kind of hard for me to accept. Of course I want her to adjust well, but part of me also wants her to miss me so badly she can't function. Healthy? No. But validating, for sure. The most difficult part of day care for Violet is she won't nap because she's afraid she might miss something. She pushes through the sleepiness all day long and when I finally pick her up in the afternoon, she's absolutely exhausted.

First day at day care. Fascinated by the beach ball, uninterested in mom leaving.

The great thing is I can stop by at lunch because she is right down the road!

Remind me to hang a beach ball from the ceiling when I get back to Kentucky.

Meanwhile, Ryan is in Kentucky working two jobs, raising two kids alone, and working to get our house ready to move into every night. I know he's absolutely exhausted. If you're in Louisville, and would like to snuggle some babies on an evening or weekend, I know Ryan could really use some help. Violet and I have only 4 weeks left before we join the rest of the Manning clan and 12 days until we arrive in Louisville for their 1st birthday reunion. It's hard to believe that in less than two weeks we will have survived our first year of raising triplets.