Green. *smiles*

Sometimes the ONLY thing to do is laugh. Really. Cuz the options are cry or scream. And since my nephew is here, I'll spare him that terror.

I'll also spare you photos. Really, you'll thank me later. And be happy you're not here to share the other lovely characteristics of today's activities.

I'm sure I have lost my mind. That is undeniable, currently. My sweet Cheeks is running me ragged with her 2-yr-old energy and hyper-curiosity. For her, it's a race, from the time she wakes to the time she sleeps, some 12 hours later, to see just how much she can get into. This naughtiness also increases in speed (for all of them, not just wee Cheeks) from around 6 pm until bedtime at 8:30. I lock the cupboards, but she can open the fridge. Sometimes I forget to lock the cupboards, or her siblings open them, and therefore she enters. She has wiggled her fingers between the child locks on a pantry cupboard I have that houses random things like extra baking supplies, crayons / markers, stickers, food coloring, little candy balls used in cake decorating (that are now all over the floor in there). Things I don't want her getting into. She loves to play with baby formula. She likes to eat raisins and crackers, leaving trails of raisins and crackers. She also is quite adept at climbing / scaling everything. Wheels on it? Who cares. Infant child in that walker seat? No prob, she'll have a soft landing then. Yesterday I decided to allow her to "wash dishes" thinking that this planned activity would help slow her. Nope. Just gave her permission to wash dishes any time she wants, leaving huge puddles on my floor.

All this to say, she has worn. me. out. So apparently my judgement is a bit lacking when I promised my son that we would invite his cousin to come to OUR house to play while daddy was at work (so that daddy would not be bothered by it all), because cousin jr is sick, so we can't go there and play. sigh.

I did not know many things that would happen. I did not know that my children would increase their speed even more than normal last night before bed, so that I was ready to pass out at 9:30. But a mother's work is never done, so I kept going for another hour, making sure my seriously crabby-because-he's-trying-to-quit-smoking hubby had all his favorite work clothes clean.

I did not know that Sid the Science Kid, bless his cute little intelligent soul, would talk about composting today. This kind of thing tende to get B-Boy charged, and so he decided to make his own compost pile, by dumping all our puzzles, his cars, mega blocks, "beer cans", fish, balls, doll clothes, a Barbie or two, shape sorting blocks and some other random things, all in a big pile, covering a heat vent, in front of the door. I explained to him mid-compost that he would have to pick this all up when done. He just scowled and kept on composting. Later, upon realizing the placement of his pile, I told him to clean it up because we couldn't have it covering the vent or the door. So he moved it, across the room.

hmmmm. Not exaaactly what I was thinking.

Later, I thought, it's probably time to go get Cousin M, but first "Let's pick up the toys!" :D :D Not met with much enthusiasm. I mistakenly thought Cousin M coming would be a motivator. Silly me. I did still make THEM pick it up.

Cousin M was met with hugs and shouts. All is great. They are playing nicely, albeit tearing down all the toys, but that's to be expected. Suddenly, I hear shouts of "Cheeks pooped!" And in she runs, poop trails down one leg, followed closely behind by her brother who mysteriously has poop all down the front of his left pant leg, and on his sock. Now, I can't imagine any scenario where he would do this to himself, and there wasn't enough time for him to have not known it was there. Nor do I imagine he was pretending he was a snake and slithered in it. Lordy. Oh, and did I mention that I'm kinda attempting to potty train Cheeks, or she's trying to potty train herself, one or the other, but she chooses to run around b'naked all. day. long. I now remember the error in this.

We get the poopy leg/foot on Cheeks cleaned up so she's not trailing it around. B-Boy gets his pants and sock off. Now, to find the rest of the mess.

Imagine my surprise when I find the rest of it on the carpet in the addition. I'm not sad about the carpet, except that it makes it more difficult to clean up. The carpet is just to cover the plywood floor as we have not finished this room yet. That carpet needs to go soon. Reeeaaalll soon.

I begin cleaning. Now, not to be gross, but this is important. Remember me telling you Cheeks likes to eat raisins? I'm SURE I do not need to explain what happens to raisins in the digestive system of small children. I'm cleaning them of a coffee table (????) and the floor, all with an audience of small children, who are also discussing the action, the appearance, and the smell. The word "poop" is repeated a record number of times. Cheeks keeps repeating "I poop. I poop." Yes, dear, you did. I laugh. That's my choice. Then she says, "pooooop. greeeeen."

Aw. We're learing our colors.

I laugh some more.

Then I throw a rug over the wet spot.