how to make mommy crazy.

Wow. What an afternoon! What an evening so far! In the grand scheme of things, the latter part of today has been nothing out of the ordinary.... But my oh my, while it's been going on, I've wanted to tear my hair out. So it's been one of those days, you may be murmuring to yourself. Yep- it's one of those.

Here's a snippet: I whipped together one of my favorite dinners (breakfast! Eggs, bacon, and homemade wheat biscuits- mmm!) while Gabriel ran around the kitchen waving my used flour cup in the air and sprinkling the residual whiteness all over the floor. Eli screamed from that horrible, dreadful place that non-mobile 6-month-olds are relegated to, the center of the living room rug.

Dinner done. Dinner scraped hurriedly into steel titanium plate (just kidding, but it is kid-proof) and regular Mommy plate.

Gabriel decided it's suddenly okay to stand on TOP of the table. Eli's still screaming.

Baby strapped into high chair. Here, baby, have some biscuit bits. Toddler squirming all over the place in booster seat, but hey, he's eating some of his own biscuit!

Aaaaaaaand shovel that food, woman, into your mouth as quickly as possible until...

Gabriel is full, after 3 whole bites of biscuit. He climbs atop the table (again!) and pushes his plate toward mine. "All done!" he yells repeatedly, in case I wasn't getting it from his non-verbal cues. "Sit down!" I bark between mouthfuls.

Uh-oh. Eli's already weak dexterity with the pincer grasp has petered out. He's slamming his tiny fists onto his tray, perhaps vainly hoping some pieces of biscuit will magically fly up into his mouth. Since this isn't happening, he falls back to Plan B: Scream. Loud. Like a prehistoric bird creature. (Are Mommy's ears bleeding? Oh good. It's working.)

15 seconds later, this is what you would've seen:
1) A pouting Gabriel grudgingly finishing up a biscuit.
2) A grunting Eli having biscuit fed to him.
3) A frantic me, standing hunched over a corner of the table and trying to sneak bites in between Eli's. He's a rapid-fire eater. And once you've put some in his mouth, you better be ready like NOW with the next bite.

My stomach hurts, probably from not chewing an entire plateful of food. Thing #2 is peacefully asleep, clutching his green blanket with his head mashed up against the crib bumper. And Thing #1 is surveying the room around us while I type, trying to figure out what he can hook his kiddie fishing pole on and drag around. He's quiet while he works, chewing on his bottom lip as he analyzes his options. I chew my lip like that too when I'm thinking. So does my dad.

Ah, today wasn't so bad. They're crazy little things, but they're my things, and gosh I love them.