My day...

We are on a daily roller coaster over here. We're uuuuuuuppppPPPP. And then we're DDDDDOOOoooowwwnnnn. And back uuuuppp. And back dowwwwnnnn.

I'm talking about the two-year old roller coaster of course. Today was a real humdinger. I caught myself screaming at Lily a few times today. Because THAT is really productive. But, honestly, her whining and screaming grates at my nerves until one of them SNAPS...and then I scream.

Let's see if I can take you on a tour of our day with Lily today...SHALL WE?

Okay, the morning is already fuzzy. I think it is a self-protection instinct in my brain...if I think about the 2 year old's behavior for too long I will self combust...better to just forget it quickly. So please understand if there are large gaps in our day. Let me try harder...

Lily wakes up. Desperately wants milk, but mean old mommy makes her get dressed first. Get downstairs and desperately wants advent chocolate. Mean old mommy will only let her have one, so tantrum ensues. Mommy is expecting this one, so no big deal. Lily gets her milk. Fights with Andrew over baby Jesus. Mommy contemplates converting to Islam. More fighting over random toys that Andrew touches...even if they aren't toys Lily is playing with. Mommy starts seeing an aura of red. Time for breakfast! Lily plays with syrup on plate and spreads it artfully on the table while Mommy is busy feeding Michael. Doesn't eat any waffle. Stands up on chair when finished playing with syrup and knocks over advent calendar. Chocolates burst out of windows. Lily screams when Mommy won't let her have any. Mommy turns on tv.

While Mommy takes Andrew and Michael upstairs to get dressed, Lily bores of the tv. She screams at the bottom of steps to come upstairs. Mommy tell her to come up by herself. She wails and thrashes. So Mommy goes downstairs to carry her up. As Lily feels Mommy's hands under her arms, she begins screaming, "NO! MYSELF!" and she goes up the steps by herself.

Somehow all the children get dressed and teeth brushed and coats on and ushered into the car so we can make it to Andrew's doctor's appointment. Lily starts whining for food (remember how we just PLAYED with breakfast?) and to watch a movie. Children have a spirited fight over what CD we can listen to, since Mommy said no to the movie. Michael begins to get hysterical because this SHOULD be his morning nap time, even though he hasn't napped in a week for some reason, so it's not as if he would be napping at home anyway. He won't sleep in the car, so screaming it is. Mommy is getting more and more excited about the doctor's appointment.

Go into doctor's. Lily does amazingly well, considering there was 10 minutes in the cramped hallway measuring and weighing and checking Andrew's eyes with nothing for her to do and Mommy holding Michael (aka not restraining Lily). Lily soon gets bored in the examination room and lets out a few screams for good measure. She eats 2 packets of fruit snacks.

An hour later, doctor's appointment is over. Michael is delirious from lack of nap, Andrew is sobbing from his shot, and Lily is screaming because she doesn't want to leave. Huh? Yes, that's right, after an hour of begging and screaming to LEAVE the doctor's, she has a full-blown tantrum when we actually leave...begging and screaming to stay. I say again, Huh? Our reward for the doctor's was going to be going to the library. Everyone agrees this is still a great thing, so we head over to the library. I pull into the parking lot, and Michael has begun choking he is crying so hard, Lily starts screaming NOOOOOOOo, and Andrew is shaking his head. I pull a U-turn and get the heck out of there. 5 minutes before turning into our driveway, Michael falls asleep in the carseat. We drive around listening to the Backyardigans CD for 20 minutes. Back at home, we play outside while Michael continues to sleep in the car. Lily wants inside so she screams. Then, Lily screams and has fit because the rake is too big for her. Michael wakes up so we finally get to go inside! Lily screams because she wants to stay outside and go in the backyard. We go in backyard and play, but she screams because none of the toys are outside anymore. We go inside. I can't remember what happened at this point, but somehow everyone got fed.

Coloring time. Lily takes all the caps off and then dumps markers on the floor. Andrew is hysterical because they were sharing said markers. Lily refuses to help me pick them up. Time out. Comes out of time out stoically and helps pick up markers. I think it was bedtime? Much screaming and to-do about nap time. Michael takes a whooping 20 minute nap. Lily gets up after 90 minutes of sleep. Lily and Andrew begin fighting over baby Jesus again (Hindu, maybe?), and break the nativity barn. Lily starts wheeling her stroller around trying to chase Andrew, who decides it isn't so fun so the screaming begins again. I think we played with Playdoh at some point? I remember more screaming because Andrew walked by while she was playing.

We decide to go to the library after all, because it was only 3pm and Daddy doesn't come home until at least 5. At this rate there certainly wouldn't be 3 children alive when he got there. We went to the park next to the library and played for 30 minutes. Lily was a MESS. A little girl wanted to play with her (because she looks so friendly and cute???), and Lily would cry as if she had punched her every time the little girl would approach. The grandfather with this child was convinced his Chloe was doing something horrid, and I had to keep reassuring him that my child was simply psycho...not to worry. We walk back to the library, and Lily screams bloody murder when one of the 2 computers is broken. We look at books and Andrew hops on the other computer when it opens up. Lily whines to get on it. Timer goes off, Andrew gets off, Lily's turn. Timer goes off, Lily easily stops and says goodbye to computer. (?) She puts favorite book up on counter...librarian is too slow, Lily grabs it off before it gets checked out, and then throws a MONSTER tantrum when we have to take it away to check it out. Mommy gets all kids back into car (2 out of 3 screaming crying), and then realizes the books in the bag over her shoulder never got checked out. Mommy leaves screaming children in the locked car and runs inside to check out books. Librarian takes her sweet time, even though it was the same gal and she realized my children were alone somewhere without me. Grrrrr. Drive home listening to the Backyardigans (my eye is twitching at this point), and sing sweet praises that Daddy has just arrived home as we pull in.

Somehow dinner is prepared and served and children get library books read to them, pjs on, to bed.

Ahhhhh, then my fantastic husband made me spiked hot chocolate. Strong.


Oh, and Andrew is 46 lbs and 47 inches tall. He is going to the ENT because his ear have been filled with fluid every appointment since birth (only 3 infections that whole time, though), and he has some hearing loss in the upper registers. Nothing serious, but enough to get a recommendation to the ENT.

Oh, and Michael is rolling around rooms now. I found him struggling under a chair reaching for a tiny piece of chalk. Lord help me, I hope he has a great guardian angel...I don't know how he isn't going to choke every day of his life.

Oh, and Lily was reading a book of opposites today. So cute. Of course, she wasn't READING, but it sounded like it. Each page has a picture of this duck doing something....like SAD and the the opposite page shows the same duck HAPPY. She easily figured out the pictures and "read" the book to us. We made a big deal about it, so she hopped down, grabbed "Green Eggs and Ham" and pronounced, "Read it MYSELF." And then had a tantrum when we wouldn't read it to her. And had a tantrum when we tried to read it to her. Then we put her to bed ;)