Craziness

Stephen was gone on Wednesday evening, so I picked up the kids and we hung out at home. Usually, dinnertime at our house is a little hectic to say the least. Keaton devours any food in front of him in roughly three minutes, so by the time we've all sat down to eat, he's finished and asking for more. Once we've put more food on Keaton's high chair tray, Cate is usually ready for more food or beverage, whining because she doesn't like the food and/or beverage or yelling something at the top of her lungs. Mallory is always stationed about three inches from my foot, waiting for someone to drop some tasty morsel on the floor, and right in the perfect spot for causing a major accident when I trip over her. In the mean time, Stephen and I are trying to grab a couple bites of food and keep our sanity.

So on Wednesday evening, I was expecting all this craziness times two since I was on my own. But to my surprise.....the kids were angels. They were both happy when I picked them up, waited patiently while I fixed dinner and made polite babbling and/or conversation through the whole meal. We had baths for everyone and made it into bed on schedule.

I thought maybe we had turned a corner.

On Thursday evening, things started to look bad right about 5pm when I picked up Keaton. He was crying when I picked him up and cried pretty much the entire trip to Cate's school. Cate was reluctant to leave her preschool because she was in the middle of computer time when I got there. I had to drag her out of the building to get her into the car. At home, they both cried and generally made things difficult all through dinner. When we got upstairs around bath time, Cate went into the bathroom and refused to let any of us in. As she was pushing the door shut to keep all of us out, Keaton was toddling up and down the hall, trying his best to get a clear shot to the top of the stairs. He seems very interested in throwing himself down the stairs if we would just give him the opportunity.

Finally, Cate opened the door to the bathroom just a crack and Keaton pushed his way in. I scrambled down the hallway into the bathroom to see what they were doing and walked in just as Keaton was giving his stuffed Elmo a little dunk in the toilet.

Fun times.