We now return to your regularly scheduled Chaos.

So it seems things are back to norm-- ; well back to how it was before all the holiday hoopla.

The boys were in fine form Wednesday night - getting up at 4am and 5am respectively to come in to my room and tell me things like "I need a drink" and "It's almost light outside".
Don't these kids sleep? Aren't they tired? I know I am. Why aren't they tired? Why do they bound out of bed effortlessly the second a glimpse of daylight peeks over the horizon, but on schooldays, they are sawing logs and can't be woken up by a freight train.

Of course my wonderful hubby (who is operating on little sleep, but slightly more than me, due to his ability to stay asleep in the middle of the night regardless of small children opening doors and needing to be put back to bed) - anyway; THAT wonderful hubby got up with the kids and made them breakfast, allowing me to sleep in; although even that was punctuated with little people entering the room in search of toothpaste, and a cup. Why they think I would have these things in bed with me, I don't know.

I heard random whining going on downstairs followed by bellowing "Stop - will you boys just STOP FIGHTING".
I knew then that it was mom to the rescue - Not to rescue the kids of course, but to rescue my poor haggard husband, who was practically having a nervous breakdown at 10 oclock in the morning. They wore him down.

At that point, I noticed Joey hadn't even been added into the equation - he was still in his crib - patiently waiting for someone taller than 3 ft to break him free from his wooden prison. He doesn't cry in the mornings - he knows I will always get him up - I haven't missed a day yet. He is so patient and trusting and good natured. I can learn so much from him.

A rather uneventful day - punctuated by various, whining, fighting, playing, and a rousing game of "mummy chase" where I chase them around the house, sometimes with a kid on my back. They all think this is hilarious, and wish it to continue far longer than the 6-1/2 minutes that I have energy for.

Today was much more exciting, with Matthew throwing up 6 times in the space of 3 minutes. Then it was over, and he hasn't been sick since. He's now drinking gingerale, and eating scrambled eggs (Hey, his request!) and acting like nothing ever happened. Now my mom knows that vomit is my enemy - whether it's mine or someone elses - I hate it more than anything else. I would change a thousand poopy diapers before cleaning up vomit. Needless to say, I did not have a very enjoyable morning, and summoned Chris from his basement office to rescue me, which he did. My Knight in jeans and a sweatshirt. Cleaning up puke off the kitchen floor. I love him more than ever before.

We are having an unusually mild January. I suppose I should be thankful for that, since I'm not a big fan of cold temps and shoveling snow. However, now that I've released the fact that I'm ENJOYING this mild weather into the thought cloud, we will no doubt get a giant storm just in time for me to trudge through to take my son to his first day back to school - and his first day in the new school that they just built. Within' walking distance. Which is nice when it's not freezing cold and miserable out and accompanied by a baby, a 3 yr old that Hates wind/cold/rain/ and a 4 yr old that has become an expert in whining 101. Oh yes, I am looking forward to that.

I'll end on a happy note - because we got a fed-ex package today, containing our replacement saw for the Swirlin' Sawdust Workshop that the kids got for Christmas. I just have to say that Little Tikes Rocks! I had called them to tell them about a defective part, and they immediately sent out a replacement, that we got today - And not only that - But they sent out a replacement package, which also included an additional magnetic wood set, additional covers for the storage compartments, an extra slider for the saw, and an extra clamp thingy (yeah, I'm so handy that I used all the correct terms - "Thingy" is a legitimate name for a tool isn't it?).
Well I'm Happy with Little Tikes and will certainly buy Little Tikes products again in the future. They were pleasant and polite and fast. And they didn't require me to have my own tools to get their products out of the packaging - I consider that a HUGE plus, and one of the reasons why I don't buy Fisher Price stuff. (no link for them - they suck, even if their toys are cute once you sandblast them out of the packaging). So everyone with kids - Little Tikes gets my A+ rating, and believe me - that's hard to get, you need to have:

A)Good packaging - recyclable, styrofoam free, and no screwdriver needed to remove toys, and less than 3 twist ties.
B)Good customer service - a toll free number with real people on the other end, and not a never ending chain of prerecorded messages that inevitably tell you that they are only open Wednesdays from 3am - 3:26am
C) Actual quality toys that Matthew doesn't break in the first week.

Little Tikes scored high in all 3 areas. Little Tikes good. Plug over.