Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope every one’s day is filled with love! Or vodka. Or both. Whichever you prefer. But as much as I love the love between couples, and love enjoying and talking about holidays, this post is not about Valentine’s Day. Nope. It’s about how much I love my kids, but want to strangle them. (Well not literally of course.) Because I love them to death. It’s like watching my own heart walk around, in the form of these little precious beings. HOWEVER. They sometimes bring me to the brink of insanity.

I can give plenty of examples about how Ze and Vito have tested every ounce of patience that I have, but the most recent incident is what led to this post. So yesterday the kids and I get home from a play date. We get all comfy in our living room, the kids grab their pillows and camp out on the floor, as they are both pretty tired from a full morning. So I get up to the go the bathroom. Most times they follow me into the restroom (seriously, I almost always have an audience when I’m in the loo.) But today they both were laying on the floor watching one of their favorite cartoons, “Dora the Explorer”, presumably worn out and near sleep. So I leave them for a few minutes while Dora takes them on some new adventure, and return only to find that they are no longer laying down on the brink on slumber. Nope. Instead, they are near our fireplace. Of course the fireplace isn’t on (come on, we live in Cali), but  they have managed to grab several small pebbles that line the bottom of the inside of the fireplace, and spread them around. On the floor. Everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

I rounded that corner and saw that, and froze. My phone was in my back pocket, so I took a picture so I could show Chris, because I knew that when I told him the story of what happened, he would need to see it!
When I tell you I was SO UPSET! Quick back story: We move around a lot. The last 3 homes we have lived in, have had fireplaces, so the kids know the fireplace is always off-limits. We use the fireplaces at night after they sleep from time to time only for effect and ambiance, but the point is for the kids, is that it’s always hot so don’t go near it. Got it? They got it. Or so I thought.

On this particular day, they decided that they wanted to make friends with the rocks and pebbles in the fireplace, and they simply couldn’t resist:

I’m telling you. It was WAY worse than what the picture depicts. Much worse. I was seething! And simply because they were being sneaky and knew better! So after baths and being disciplined, they were sent to bed for a nap. It took me a long while to clean all of that up, but the quietness of the house made up for it. I’m really curious as to what made them decide to sprinkle the floor with fireplace debris. They’ve never done such a thing.

I tell ya, kids can surely get themselves into stuff! Whew! And I promise I still love them just the same. Just sometimes they drive me to drink.

Being caught red-handed. Vito even had rocks and pebbles in his hair!

When they are older, I’ll have plenty of evidence for them to see why they should be massaging my feet or fetching me hot chocolate from Starbucks. Kids can be challenging, but I’m often quickly reminded of why they’re worth every headache:

🙂