Picture this.....

....you're sleeping soundly with the fan gently blowing on your face, the heated blanket keeping you warm and the darkness of the bedroom making you think that it might be 2am or 3am.  Then, out of nowhere....
FLICK!  JUMP!  "MOMMY!!!!!  Guess what.....it's morning and we have a busy day....I've planned it all (still jumping on the bed) for us....we are going to eat breakfast, exercise together, go swimming for a bit, get ready to go out, play Super Mario Brothers...your favorite game, run all of the errands that you have, drop #1 off at youth group, come home....and then YOU can come up with what we do after that.....SOUND LIKE A PLAN!?!?!??!?!"

As I looked at #2 with his happy eyes and smiling face, I kept thinking:
I love him.
Do not yell.
He will not leave if I say I'll be up in a minute.
Is it really not 3am?
Remember....this is my child and I love him....even right now I love him.

As I'm getting breakfast ready, #1 looks at me and says "seriously, it's summer...can we not have ONE DAY of nothing planned".....as if I planned this day.  Then he had the nerve to say "I mean, aren't YOU the parent".

So we did everything on #2's list.  We also included a slushy because we survived all of the errands that I had.  The hardest errand we had should have been the simplest....a sheet for our camp beds and gallon plastic bags.  I don't know why it was the hardest, but for some reason, the #s couldn't stop picking at each other. 

One of the things that I do when my kiddos can't stop picking at each other is I make them put their hands on their bellies.  I know it sounds crazy, but you have no idea how much they hate this.  Picture three boys, walking through a store and they all have their hands on their bellies.  It's quite humorous and they want to be good right away because, for some reason, my kids don't think their hands go on their bellies. 

Well, #3 had a rough time in the store today with keeping his hands off of his brothers and off of everything he passed in the store....so the punishment was he had to put his hands on his belly.  So as he's walking around the store with me, I hear....
"can I take my hands off my belly now"
"how about now"
"MOMMY CAN YOU HEAR ME"
"my hands don't want to be on my belly anymore"
"my hands don't like my belly"
"MOMMY ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME"
"my belly says my hands smell"
"MOMMY, I NEED TO MOVE MY HANDS"
"I.  AM.  NOT.  HAPPY."
"MOMMY"

Seriously....this happened from one side of the store all the way to the checkout aisle and out the door.  Did you know people love to stare???!?!?  They also love to whisper.  I'm thinking...the kid has his hands on his belly....I'm not hurting him, I'm not yelling at him....his hands are touching his belly.....get over it people.  This is called creative parenting...and we do this a lot in our life by numbers!