Parenting lately

Sometimes kids are the worst.  They pee on you even though you've just told them 100 times that they should use the toilet.  They scream and carry-on in the library because you're sitting in the wrong spot. (Had we been 5 seconds slower in leaving we would've been invited to leave.)  They don't eat the food you make them.  Worse, it will probably end up half-chewed on the kitchen table.  And they spill milk between the oven and cabinet so you have to pull the whole oven out to clean it up.  Gross.

Luckily, sometimes they're not the worst.  Tonight my kids pulled out about 50 wipes and started cleaning all the surfaces in sight.  "Does that make you happy, Mom?" 

But so many things have been driving me crazy lately, probably because they're all in the age-range for irrational tantrums.  And the twins are starting to give up naps so they're constantly tired.  And potty-training and defiance and 2-yr molars.  Mixed in with a lot of back pain that makes me impatient and irritable.  And a husband whose job ensures he is never home. 

Halloween wasn't even a week ago and the candy situation already pushed me over the edge.  Yesterday day, I declared it was all disappearing overnight.  And it did.  (It disappeared right into my stash of candy to use for potty-training bribery.)  No more candy wrappers on the ground.  No more tiny hands constantly handing me pieces to be opened.  No more little voices whining, "I need candy!"  Well, they may still whine, but now they have to work for it. 

Oddly, 2 or 3 weeks ago I was thinking about how much I was enjoying this stage of parenting.  I love that we can go and do things without much planning or difficulty.  It wasn't the end of the world if our normal schedule was interrupted.  My kids walk around places with me.  (No stroller!)  They can all finally communicate, even if it's just to say, "I need candy."  They play together. 

But now as I sit here and write this I'm exhausted and want my not-tired, not-hangry, not-teething kids back.  And if the diapers were gone, too, that'd be great.