Christmas Diary, Day One: Into the Maelstrom

[muckefuck]

My plane got in only about ten minutes late--a real rarity with SWA, IME--but that was long enough to make the difference between the boys greeting me properly and growing totally restless. Their absence and my general insensibility made it difficult to find my sister, who by way of explanation led me behind a wall of monitors to where they were using seats as slides. I picked up and swung each of them in turn, and we eventually made it to the car, where they spazzed out like they had ingested Jacob's Ladder. Honestly, they were nothing but one big flailing of limbs from the moment we tried to cram them into carseats.

Once home, the real fireworks could start. At lunch, AWI fell into an unprovoked crying jag that eventually blossomed into a full-on temper tantrum which my sister met with a time-out. After he'd finally calmed down somewhat, ECI had a meltdown trying to play a computer game and I honestly thought my sister was going to scream bloody murder. She kept it together, though, constantly supplying constructive feedback to them as they wrestled with their oversized emotions. For my part, I was punchier than Punchy and alternated between cool disbelief and hysterical laughter.

The absolute kicker: I went to console AWI on the couch, but he got up and stalked away proclaiming "I want to be by myself!" No sooner was he out of the room than his charmingly-unclear-on-the-concept younger brother shouted, "I wan be by mysell too!" and trotted off in pursuit.

I crashed around one and am still slowly coming back to life. ECI seems about the same point--as I slipped out of my room, I noticed him awake but still quietly lying in bed--and AWI is out cold, even though he hasn't been napping regularly for months now. Now that I've seen them at their absolute worst, things can only get better, right?

Comments

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

Clearly it's time for some Benadryl so that they can nestle in their beds with sugar plums and whatnot.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

That's my sister's theory as well. Today, the youngest took a three-hour nap, which is apparently unprecedented in a healthy child.

ah ...

[monshu.livejournal.com]

Hopefully you remembered last night's meal at Francesca's and a sweet time together. I promise no crying jags in future.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I dedicated an entire post to it, but it was so tasty that LiveJournal went and ate it!

[keyne.livejournal.com]

tip: never ever use the words "absolute worst" wrt small children.

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

Point taken!