My teenager

Yesterday at Target I had a very chatty woman checking me out. She was commenting on how much baby food I had and I told her I had twins. She nodded her head, smiled, and went on to say how sweet that is to have a boy and a girl! As she was ringing up the rest of the groceries she made a comment about the rest of the food being for me and I said no that was all the boy food for my other 3. That is when I got the look, seriously how old? I told her a teen (14), a tween (11), a boy (9)  and the twins (15 month). First I thought she was going to let it go but then she asked, with a big sigh, how do you manage? I told her thankfully I have a very supportive family and an amazing teen who loves his siblings.

It is not always easy but there are some things I have learned with having a teen in the house....

1.  I mentioned this before in a post but one of the best ways to change a teenagers attitude is to hand him a baby. C could be completely overwhelmed with school work or just be in a lovely teenage mood and all we have to do is hand him one of the twins. That heart just melts. I love to watch how gentle and sweet he is. It is not just the little ones either. He is close to his brothers too.

2.  The iphone is the best way to get my point across. We have a rule in the house you get a bad grade the phone is not allowed in your room. 8:00 every night the phone has to be on the counter for the night until all grades are pulled up!

3.  Some people look at our crazy soccer life and get exhausted, I look at it and think of all the time I am getting with my boys. Yes it is a lot more stressful now that I am dragging the twins with us but I still get all that travel time in the car to catch up. At home there is so much going on but in the car we get to stop and talk. I love this time! We turn off the radio and I learn so much about their day.  It is all worth all the driving we do just to know what is going on in the boys life.

4.  I have learned that when the alarm goes off at 5:45 I have to stay outside his door for a few minutes just to make sure there is movement coming from his room. I usually give him 5 minutes before I go in for a second attempt to wake him up. These early mornings are so much fun--hahaha!!

Having a teen in the house with a tween, a boy, and 2 toddlers is definitely a juggling act but would not trade it for anything!!!