Just hand over the coffee...

My household has caused me to take mommy brain to a whole new level. They have stolen my brain and passed it around amongst themselves.They've dropped it, thrown it, kicked it and just generally had a good ole' time with it. You remember those sticky hands your kids get out of the quarter machine that you find stuck to everything from the TV, to the carpet to the ceiling? You know how they get all nasty after hours of fun and abuse? That's how my brain was when my children finally gave it back to me. So at the end of the day, they have nobody but themselves to blame when I finally let out the crazy!

I start out most days normal, calm and sane. Usually after a night of broken sleep courtesy of my 7 month old, teething daughter, Riley. I've trained Hunter, 5 years old, and Holly, 3 years old, to play with their baby sister while I go pee and go to the kitchen to get them some breakfast and start the coffee pot. Mom of the year that I am, I usually start the coffee first. Then comes the ritual of telling Holly to get her panties and some pants on and hoping that she woke up with a dry pullup. Then telling her to try again cause her panties are sideways and her pants are on backwards. And trying to keep them from yelling or screaming too loudly and waking up grumpy uncle Sir, (I'll explain the name later) who is asleep in his room on the couch, at least until the coffee gets done. Hopefully the rest of the morning is calm and uneventful. On good days they don't even tattle on each other without asking me if I drank my coffee yet. Smart little cookies aren't they? On the average day I spend the morning telling Holly to stop running through the house, reminding Hunter it's nice to share the toys and occasionally pretending like I didn't see Holly hit her brother and call him a jerk after he again snatches a toy away from her. Luckily Riley is usually pretty good during this time, army crawling across the living room floor searching for any food that fell off her walker during her morning snack that I missed cleaning up. You're envious aren't you...