This is the morning . . .

Today at some-rediculous-dark-thirty in the morning Will came to our room to ask if he could watch cartoons. The answer from Allen was a definite "No! Go to bed!" What seemed like five minutes later to me it happened all over again. "Can I watch cartoons now?" "NO! Go to bed it's not morning yet." And just a little later, "NOW can I watch cartoons? I can't go back to bed since I am already dressed.""NO! Stop waking us up. Don't ask again until the first number on the clock is a 7."

A while later, Allen got up a showered. It was still dark out, but Will came to me and asked, "Can I watch cartoons now? I speeded up the time so it must be seven now!" Ugh. I looked at the clock by my bed and it was, indeed, 7:01am, so I went and turned on the cartoons and planned to get back in bed for a few more minutes. Then Will pointed to the clock in the living room . . .and told me that was the magic clock that HE could speed up time on. I felt my blood boil as I looked at the old mantle clock and asked him exactly what he did. . . he told me he opened the glass and turned the hands a lot. He was quite proud of himself. . . until he saw my expression. Oh, yeah, I was peeved!

I told Allen what happened and his opinion on the matter was the same as mine, "I give him points for creativity but take away a lot for orneriness." Will now understands he is not to touch any clocks except his own.

Yesterday, while I thought Maddie was napping she climbed out of her crib and dumped the laundry basket, the pajama drawer, and the sock drawer. Many of the clothes covered the entire sheet of Jon's crib, Ben had a few, and as far as I could tell, there was no carpet to be seen in their room. She made the biggest mess those little ones have ever made. I was mad when I made her help me pick it all up and put it away. . . do you know how long it will take to get it back to the way I can find things? There goes my Saturday. When I was working on dinner, the little kids opened Will's bedroom door and did the same thing to his room! Clothes EVERYWHERE!! And so were the blankets and sheets from the bed; and the bookcase was empty, too. I made them pick that up, too. I may have to go out and get another bed tent for her, but I am procrastinating. I hate spending $70 on a tent that they are going to poke their tiny fingers into and start ripping it apart. . . . but then my other option is to take all laundry out of my kids' rooms. And put it where? Why not just leave it in the dryer? Or stacked in my room, like usual. . .