Oi.

Today after picking Claire up from school, we picked Brian up for lunch and headed over to the mall for some food court goodness, and a little Christmas shopping. Up until that point the day had gone pretty well.

At lunch Ben dropped a full cup of ketchup under the table. Then Claire kept trying to crawl down there to play. Brian got sick from something he ate, and had to bail early. Then, after losing Claire for about 3 minutes in Macy's (oh the gray hairs - the thoughts that run through your head. I was already mentally composing the description I would give people so we could start an all-out childhunt), Ben fell asleep in the stroller. This may seem like a good thing. But, firstly, he is too big for the stroller, and during much of his sleeping his feet rested on the front wheels which meant I had to tip the stroller up onto only its two rear wheels for a lot of the navigating. And, secondly, that he absolutely would not nap until after we got home.

On the ride home, in the back seat for several minutes all I could hear was, "yes!" and "no!" The kicker? They were not arguing about anything. There was no question to be answered. They just wanted to be ornery, so were disagreeing with each other. Over nothing. at. all. It was funny, but also, mildly annoying.

Ben's lack of nap at home meant that today, after I got up, I did not have a single child-free minute until about 30 minutes ago when Claire was tucked into bed. That makes for a very. long. day. No matter how cute the children are. Mama needs a break.