Where oh where

Lately, life has been a bit busy.  No time for picture taking, no time for reflection, no time for thinking... and no time for blogging.

Yes, the girls being in two different dance classes each is time consuming.  Porter having half-day kindergarten with a mini-pile of homework each day and baseball on the weekend is hard.  Adi is running for student council, Piper just joined her big sis in Activity Girls, after school clubs for the three eldest, play dates, doctor appointments, dentists, trying to buy a house (should it really be this hard?), Orrin's new job and new promotion, insurance stuff, extended family stuff... life has been coming hard at me lately and sometimes I feel like a sloppy juggler trying to keep a myriad of balls rotating in the air.

Those are wonderful excuses, you are probably thinking, but that's life.  And you are so very true.  The one major difference is my days that leaves me incredibly drained and so mind-numbingly tired that I cannot even sit in front of a computer even when I have a spare moment: a toddler.

This toddler, to be exact.

Little Wyatt has yet to reach his second birthday, and yet his terrible twos have taken this house by storm.  The little stinker has figured out how to open every single door in this house (including the sliding back door and the garage door that Adi can only open on a good day) and how to unlock them all- with a bobby pin from the other side of the door. Wyatt is quite the masterful lock picker.  He has also mastered the art of pulling open the fridge and freezer and opening the OtterPops and chewing through every single string cheese (still in the wrapper) before anyone notices the cold draft coming from the kitchen.  He pulls on the child-lock on the pantry until it snaps off and then he plays how-many-chips-and-fruit-snacks-can-I-stuff-into-my-mouth-before-Mom-sees game. Very entertaining for him.  Not so much for me.

Wy-Fi figured out how to climb onto the trampoline outside.  And when his siblings move the chair away to hinder his jumping practice, he pushes his little red and yellow car over and uses that to hoist himself up.  Terrifyingly funny story: Adi was holding Wyatt's hand, jumping on the tramp the other day.  When they were done, Adi jumped down and turned around to pull Wy off.  Before she had the chance, he backed his little booty up to the edge of the tramp, grabbed a hold of the bar, and jumped backwards off of the tramp, in a move that pretty much solidified his place on the USA Olympic gymnastic team in a few years.  I was watching this from the kitchen window, and before I got myself out of the door to stop him, he was dangling from the bar and grinning at my panicked scream.  We are watching him a heck-of-a-lot closer when he's out there these days.

His fits are rather unbelievable.  He doesn't so much scream, as he is too busy walking around throwing and kicking everything in sight.  If that doesn't attract enough attention for him, he will fall down and start hitting his head into the floor.

Yeah.  My kid's a wierdo.

Wyatt unplugs the computer at least twice a day, pulls off his diaper and runs butt-naked around the house, gets into his sister's make up and rubs red lipstick all over the walls and carpet, breaks the blinds, pulls hair, refuses to eat anything that could be considered healthy, screams when anyone but  myself picks him up, sneaks into his sisters' room and throws all of their clothes from their dresser drawers onto the floor, tries to release his brother's pet frogs into the wild (aka our house)...

He's just so incredibly busy that I stay incredibly busy trying to either a) entertain him or b) clean up after him.

Let's just say nap time and bed time is strictly enforced around here.

And yet...

when the horrible little monster decides to smile,

my heart melts, my anger vanishes, and I am so, so grateful that this busy little boy is in our family.

He is our family's clown.  He'll do anything to get us laughing (wearing a pink tutu while dancing, for example), and loves being the center of attention. He loves playing trucks with his big brother, building blanket forts with his sisters, watching UP, playing with balloons, drinking gallons of water a day... but most of all, this kid loves being outside.

So, to all of my faithful followers (that's you, Whit and Mom), I am trying to get back on here with some kind of frequency.

And if I go a week or two without  posting, just assume that Wyatt has learned how to start the car on his own or maybe how to climb onto the roof.