Holy Crap

Monday was awesome.

Jason worked his first 12-hour day (the new normal for the rest of the calendar year) and I held down the fort. I ran errands. I schlepped kids to activities. I ordered Christmas presents online. I bundled up kids up for a long walk to the park and back. I fed pets, tidied the house, paid some bills and even found some time in the evening to knit part of a Christmas present.

Apparently, I got a little too cocky.

Don't worry. I was knocked back down. Tuesday was hell.

Really, it was the worst day I've spent parenting since Natalie had colic. The kids threw themselves to the ground no less than 97 times, sobbing and screaming about everything. They refused to read books, play board games, do puzzles, play outside, go for a walk, play in their rooms, color, sit, stand, roll over, whatever. Gavin ran like a crazed Gingerbread man through the library parking lot. Then he went boneless (technically more like writhing boneless) and I had to man-wrestle him into the carseat. He screamed bloody murder. Natalie sassed me, over and over and over. They laughed and ran from discipline, tormented each other, kicked and hit.

And that was all before noon.

The afternoon wasn't any better. They barely napped and the madness continued. We skipped their gymnastics class and I honestly have no idea what I ended up serving for dinner. Maybe we skipped that too. They were in bed by 7 p.m. and I crawled into bed myself, defeated.

I've never seen anything like it. My children aren't monsters. They have bad days, but never, never, never have they had one like that. Especially following such an angelic day, like Monday.

What on earth?

Today, we landed somewhere in the middle - moments of horrible tantrums, but some moments of peace and fun play. I also took Gavin to the doctor because of his behavior, which has been very untypical for him for the past week. (Massive public tantrums, anger, fighting, etc.) It turns out he's fighting some sort of viral mess. Apparently instead of a runny nose and a cough, he's simply turned into a monster.

Thank goodness.

That means he should be back to himself soon. And hopefully Natalie will be better behaved around a happy Gavin too.

And tomorrow or the next day or the next day will be better.