Double the Boys, Half the Vigilance

Up until a few seconds ago, I had the entry to this post all planned out. I was seriously just getting ready to type "my house is peaceful" - and speculate that I might have fallen into a weird parallel universe - when I heard a crash and turned around to see Cameron dangling precariously from the stair railing, a toppled stack of scrapbooks beneath his feet.

Nope, I'm in the right universe after all. *sigh*

My house was quiet, though, for about half an hour. It's because the kids are tired. We've had company for the past two and a half days: two of my best friends, Betsy and Denni, and Betsy's two boys - Zach (9) and Cole (4). We all had a blast. The kids ran around like wild men, and took advantage of our near-complete lack of vigilance (what? There were old pictures and Facebook to look at, and cake to sneak when the kids weren't looking eat). The house was trashed beyond belief, but damn it, I got in a good visit with two of my very favorite people - which is something that doesn't happen nearly often enough since we live four hours apart.

When you double the usual amount of little boys in a house, it stands to reason that the amount of minor fiascos doubles as well. So among other things, we dealt with the following:

- A shattered glass
- A poopy diaper removed (unbeknownst to Mommy) and left on the floor ... with a "recycled" raisin beside it
- An arm stuck in the pool table
- A head stuck in a toy baby carrier
- A broken Slip-n-Slide
- The baby knee-deep in the toilet ... and three little witnesses who didn't do a thing to stop him
- A pair of mysteriously pee-saturated underwear that nobody would claim
- An overflowing bathtub
- A minor scratch, "helpfully" covered with multiple Band-Aids

This is to say nothing of the screaming disputes over toys (usually the one little stupid thing that nobody's interested in until ONE of them wants it - then it's suddenly a hot commodity), the incessant tattling (seriously, it was as if they were getting paid to do it), and the constant barrage of complaints about someone (cough*Colin*cough) who, as usual, wouldn't keep his pants on.

All in all though, I had a fabulous, much-needed visit with my girls, and the kids got some fun interaction with their friends. Who can beat a Slip-n-Slide on a humid summer day?


(Cameron would have been in the picture too, but he was busy splashing in the resulting puddles with a baseball bat.)

The best part, besides a slight restoration of my sanity? My kids are worn out from two days of constant running and playing/no naps/poor nutrition ("You want Pop-Tarts for dinner? ... Okay,"). Maybe now they'll sleep right through the crack of dawn - at least for the next day or two. Hey, a girl can dream!