No mo' fo' sho'

So I'm done having kids. How can I be sure??? Step foot into my house around 5 in the evening and you'll understand. Not only will you see where I'm coming from, you may just pop in to your doc for a quick tube-tie to make sure this circus doesn't set up a tent in your home. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy. Blissfully so in fact. I love my life. I love my husband and kids more than I ever thought was humanly possible. I wouldn't change a thing... BUT three beautiful children is enough.

I don't know what it is about people always asking me the question, "Are you done?" It's the same stupid line of questioning that you get when you're dating someone, "So when are you getting married?" Then you're married and it's, "When are you having kids." Then you have one and before you're even sleeping through the night it's, "When are you having #2" and so on and so on. Granted, I realize that I never REALLY heard anyone ask me that last question, because I beat them all to the punch by having my girls 11 months apart. (see my Irish Twins post)

Ever since we decided not to have any more kids, it seems to have changed the way I feel about a lot of things. It's as if we've suddenly moved on to an entirely new phase in the life of our family. For a majority of the years that Mark and I have been married, we've been in the "expansion" phase where every few months or years we welcome a new member to our brood. It's a crazy and fun time but also very uncertain. It's filled with questions about whether to have a child, when to have one, how will you manage one, etc. It's remarkable how those questions and conversations can infiltrate every facet of your life from whether you take a job to whether you take a vacation.

Now we've moved out of the Expanding-the-Family phase and into the Enjoying-the-Family phase. And it's been so much fun. We can focus on creating a good life for the kids we do have instead of creating lives for the ones we don't. We can plan vacations and start showing our kids the world. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to bottles, pacifiers and diapers. In fact, we've already started planning the huge party we're going to throw when we change our last diaper. Its tentative name? The "Happy Campers, No Longer in Pampers" party. It's going to be wild. We'll expect the police to shut it down.

It's neat knowing that our family is complete. The group is closed; we aren't accepting new applications. We're a party of five. Growing up, I always knew I wanted a family, but I never knew what that would look like years down the road. Now I know, because I can look around my kitchen table and I see all of their beautiful faces. It's an awesome feeling.