Juggling Multiple Kids Takes Patience

With the birth of my youngest child, I was suddenly juggling a newborn, an almost-two-year-old and an almost-four-year-old.

That meant lots of diapers (since the oldest two weren't quite finished with potty training), three carseats, a massive diaper bag and total exhaustion.

One trick that I discovered that made juggling multiple kids of different ages easier, was to mark things.

Diapers of varying sizes were marked with permament marker on the back to indicate the child they belonged so. Socks were marked on the bottom of the toes with Xs - one x for the oldest, two for the middle one and three for the baby. Sippy cups were marked with initials, clothing was initialed on the tags. I marked everything.

When we brought home a new package of diapers I would pull each one out and mark on the back of the diaper.

Even though I had my marking system down to a science for me, it hadn't quite caught on with my husband.

One time I asked him to grab a diaper, socks and clothes from the diaper bag for the baby. He just grabbed some items and dressed her.

Unfortunately, he didn't pay attention to the markings I'd made. When I looked at her - all eight pounds of her - she was swallowed up in one of the large diapers and her socks were falling off of her feet. He'd grabbed her older brothers items and dressed her in them!