school can't start soon enough...

My children, specifically the older two, are driving me nuts. Henry has so much energy. Mental and physical. It just wears me out. He was questioning me incessantly about something in the car today. I can't really remember what. But they are these detailed, specific questions that I often don't know how to explain the answer to. The other night, when we were in Orlando, we were leaving Ikea and heading to the liquor store (where else do you go after Ikea?), Henry and Patrick had a discussion about hurricanes and how they form, pressure systems, what we do to be safe, etc etc that lasted from Ikea to the liquor store and all the way to the hotel. It was a 40 minute conversation. I wanted to chew my arm off. Or open the gin we bought and start doing shots. Instead I just turned up the radio. And his mental energy is matched, if not exceeded, by his physical energy. There have been days where he has gone to school all day, come home, gone swimming in a friend's pool for two hours, and could still run a mile. If I have not provided enough opportunity for physical exertion, by 10:00 a.m. he is running up and down the hallway shrieking and/ or making repeated explosion sounds. I won't tell you what the scene is like at 4:00 p.m., but the fact that it rains practically every day at that time is really cramping my style. I am thinking of investing in ear plugs. Or more gin.

Ceci is still on an emotional joyride with practically every disappointing, frustrating, or anger-inducing occurrence that she experiences during any given day. I discussed this previously. Yep, that's still going on. And the WHINING! My friend, Tara, tells her children that she is actually physically unable to hear them when they are whining (they buy it), giving her permission to completely ignore it. This is my next tactic. I think there will be an adjustment period as I have previously been responding to the whining by saying STOP THE WHINING! If it doesn't work, I'll just utilize the aforementioned ear plugs. Or the gin.

He can't even hold still long enough to have his picture taken!