If it's not one thing, it's your brother!

Yesterday I had the boys home all day with me. I was too tired to write about the day and frankly, I didn't have a lot of good things to say. You know how I always write about how cute the boys are and how much fun we have? Yeah, this wasn't one of those days and I think it's just as important to be honest about those kinds of days, as it is the really, really good days.

The day started out fairly typical but Maddox woke up early. We had physicals scheduled for 9:10 a.m. so I was starting our morning all around those 2 appts. At 8:15 a.m., the doctor's nurse calls and says, "We can see them but Maddox won't be 1 for one week so can't give him his shots." Well, for starters, I asked them that when I made the appointment. And, secondly, probably telling me 30 minutes before my appointment isn't real helpful, considering I took the day off to do their appointments. Anyway, we then did one quick morning errand and Maddox cried the whole way home. He then took his nap and Joey and I played. When Maddox got up, we went to the park. All the slides were wet and I had nothing but my shirt to wipe them with so I did the best we could. Maddox then sat in gum- wet, soggy gum all over his cute Adidas shorts. However, I met a babysitter at the park! Woo-hoo! Got her digits! (Get it? I'm trying to make it sound as if I 'picked up' a babysitter at the park...) Okay, so the park was hot and humid and after scoring a babysitter, we walked home. At home, Maddox was a grouch. Joe wanted to see the kids over lunch...I thought he'd be home by 12:30 and at 1, he said it'd be a while. So, we went to fill up gas and get ice cream. Joey convinced me that he was such a big boy that he could handle a blizzard. What was I thinking? This was the mother of all disasters. I should have known by the silence in the backseat. Any mom knows that too much silence is never a good thing. I turned around and noticed his blizzard was gone but yet he was licking his hands over and over and over. I asked him where it was - and you guessed it- he had dropped it in his car seat. However, he proceeded to just pick up the ice cream out of the car seat, and eat it out of his hands. It was a mess. When we got home, I got him out of the seat and he had literally dropped the entire blizzard in his seat. So, after Remsy finished eating her first Oreo blizzard, we went back into the house, hoping dad would come home anytime....and it was another half hour! Throughout the whole day, Joey had been picking on his little brother. It was little things here and there - taking his toys from him, saying "No No" in this Hitler-like voice, wrestling with him and holding on extra long to his legs so he can't move, and then walking over his fingers as he went down the stairs. Every time, I busted him and he'd look at me like, "Yep, that was me- I did it!" with a sense of pride that made me want to.....and then Joey's ears were turned off the entire day. I kept saying "Joey- are you listening to me?" or "Joey- please listen to me" or "I need you to listen to me right now." He was killing me! Once Joe got home, he helped me put the kids down for a nap - and this time, I joined them. The kids were cranky, it was hot, the doctor call, the gum and the ice cream in the car seat had done me in. So, I laid down and slept for an hour which felt good - hoping that two happy little boys would wake up soon. I picked up our house that looked like a tornado struck and Joey woke up. Things really didn't improve...they were both just grouchy and Joey continued to get into trouble. He even put himself in timeout one time- that's how bad he was. Joe noticed it when he got home, too....it was just a long night!

One funny thing did happen during the day. I asked Joey what he wanted for a snack, and his response is below!

PICKLES AND POPCORN! HE ATE TWO WHOLE BOWLS OF EACH!

The day before, we went to the Science Center with Joe's cousin, Jackson and Bobbi, Ali and Carter. By the way, Ali started a blog so make sure you visit it (it's in my blog column). Jackson was visiting from Texas. The kids were all very, very good. It was geared obviously towards the bigger kids but the little ones had fun and it was good to just get out.

We just had to put Maddox and Carter next to the toilet....(those of you who are aware of our pooping problems, it seemed like a natural for Maddox).Here's the crazy bunch at the science center!Joey loving on his little cousin Carter. Carter smiles at him a lot and watches him all the time!Well, the weekend will be busy. We are going to my cousin Jenny and Jon's house. It's about 3 hours away so we're leaving after work tomorrow and will come home Sunday sometime. Might be a nice little getaway!

One last request....my friend Andrea is packing her bags for Kuwait and then is heading to Iraq shortly thereafter. Please keep her in your prayers for a safe journey. We're already anxious for her to be home.