Good Night - Or Not

I don't like my kids today. I love them everyday, but some days I just don't like them. I'm sorry if that sounds bad, but it sums up the way I feel right now.

I've had one of those evenings where every time I turn around I am either breaking up a fight, or yelling at someone. This little routine started from the minute I got home.

Tonight was swimming. I picked Kadin up and we headed for the YMCA for his weekly swim lesson. Kadin does this thing sometimes where he chronically clears his throat. It is the most horrible sound you can imagine - and what's worse is he does it constantly. I have no idea what triggers it - nerves, allergies, a tickle - but I immediately notice that he is doing this throat-clearing-thing that he does. So I ask him - "honey is there something wrong with your throat? Do you have a tickle?" He replies with - "I have a frog in my throat and I can't get it out." So he continues to obnoxiously clear his throat every 10 seconds - not kidding here - literally every 10 seconds.

Swim class went ok - other than the throat-clearing and we headed to Grandma's to pick up Bella. So I go to round up Bella because I wanted to actually get home before 8:00 so I could eat before 9:00 and I can't find Kadin's shoes. "Kadin - where are your shoes?" "I don't know." "Mom - where are Kadin's shoes?" "I don't know what shoes you are talking about." Ok, I'm not delusional - I KNOW my kid came here with shoes!!!! Ok, fine we forgot about the shoes (I had packed a spare in the swimming bag) and we headed out the door.

Bella then decided to have a fit because she wanted to ride in Kadin's car seat. HUH???? "Bella - you can't ride in Kadin's car seat - you're too little" She continued to have her fit all the way out to the car, which then the fit changed from riding in Kadin's car seat to having Grandma strap her in instead of me. Sigh . . .

Ok, kids now in car - on my way to the grocery store because this morning I heard Brian pour himself a bowl of cereal go to the fridge and realize we have no milk - grumble, grumble - poor out cereal and eat nothing for breakfast. So we're in the grocery store and now my children are complaining that they are hungry. Mind you - my parents fed them, but they didn't like the food so they didn't eat. "You already had supper." "I'm hungry! I need food!!" Crying out loud - people in the grocery store probably thought I didn't feed my kids!

I pick a line at the grocery store where the lady in front of me is trying to pay with a check. The register is asking for her driver's license which she doesn't have. Now the cashier is calling for SOS because she doesn't know what to do as Bella is pulling all the hot wheel's off the pegs and Kadin is going through each candy bar and gum selection telling me what they all are. "Mom - what's taking so long!!!" "There's something wrong with the register - it will be just a few more minutes." Now Kadin has begun to take his little cart (what a great invention by the way these little kid-sized carts - so your child can carry your food for you as they run around at top speed almost running people over and ramming into each other because it's fun) and ram it into Bella's little cart. It is complete chaos - I'm almost ready to turn around and leave my groceries on the belt.

Phew! Don't ask me how, but I made it out of the grocery store AND got my kids in the car. Headed home - and it's only 7:00 . . . yes! Oh . . . wait . . . now Bella is screaming because Kadin took her receipt that I asked her to hold. "Kadin - give that back to Bella. I asked her to hold it." "I never get to hold anything!!! That isn't fair!!!" "Kadin - you got to carry the milk." "I don't want to carry the milk!!" "That's fine." A slight pause . . . "I want to carry the milk inside!" What??????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!?! I think at that very moment I was pretty sure there was a rubber room somewhere just for me . . . and I was going to turn the car around and go there . . . wherever that might be . . .