Trouble makers

The twins are at a fun age. It's so fun to watch them become little people and learn to communicate and especially interact with each other.

And they are going to be the death of me.

(At least I tried to start out positive.  :)   They are really going through such a hard stage right now!  They are so deliberately disobedient, scream, cry and throw tantrums half of the day, and I have absolutely zero control over them. I'm not sure what to do - I'm just trying the survive-until-they-grow-out-of-it tactic right now.  We follow through with consequences - they could spend half their day in time out and it wouldn't phase them. They are totally unaffected by their behavior making me sad or upsetting me (that totally worked on Cash - he will still start crying if he ever sees me crying).  They are just such a different breed than he was. I know that having two of them to think up mischief and make the other think their behavior is ok definitely plays a part, but man I'm hoping they chill out before this baby comes!

They're the type that when I say "don't throw that in the toilet!" will defiantly stand there and do it right in front of me.  I walked in on them the other day reading books so nicely that even though it was time for naps I thought, I'll let them have 5 more minutes because I love it when they get into reading. So five minutes later I go in to a room literally full with piles and piles of pages ripped out of books.  Sigh. And their tantrums and fits are just the kind that are totally unpredictable and completely irrational. Like one time Phoenix dropped a grape in the car and I couldn't reach it and he screamed for the next thirty-seven minutes straight while I was driving. And they seriously think up so much mischief that I wouldn't even imagine! Like standing up on the kitchen tables today while eating breakfast and literally throwing their untouched bowls of cereal off the table. And they are so destructive. Heaven help me.

As another case in point, tonight was our first trip to the ER with any of our boys.  I guess I should count myself lucky that we've made it this long. They had pushed a chair over to the kitchen,  and were having a grand time sharpening all the pencils in the electric pencil sharpener. I came in to check on them and they kept telling me to "go away!"  Knowing that this age is all about the quest for independence I thought I could let them feel like big boys and keep going by themselves. I kept going in to check on them or periodically fill requests for pickles, etc. The activity seemed to wear off, and soon Ashton was over sitting on the floor watching a show with Cash. I heard a sound that I know from frequency is a head hitting our floor so I went out to see if Ashton was ok, and I saw him try to sit up and hit his head again. I was telling him to stop hitting his head on the floor as I went out to him and I picked him up and noticed he seemed a little lethargic. So I sat with him for a minute and then Phoenix came over to me sticking out his tongue with something on it - and carrying a pill bottle of Ibuprofen, but that one was still closed. At that point I yelled for Ryan to come out since right as I was scraping the remnants of a pill out of Phoenix's mouth, Ashton started throwing up and was throwing up a lot and hardly catching his breath so his face was kind of swelling. So everything pretty much broke loose all at once...and then Ryan noticed a bottle of Ambien that was open on the floor.  SERIOUSLY. Of all the medications in our cupboard that was the one they managed to get open??  They had pushed the chair over, climbed up on the counter and gotten in the far cupboards of the kitchen? So pretty soon Phoenix couldn't stand up straight and was falling all over the place and we realized they'd both taken some, although from our estimation it was probably only one pill each, but could have been two or three, although we'd seen Phoenix's reaction of wanting to spit out just one - so hopefully he just had had a half of one before I got it out of his mouth. Ashton had obviously had more.

So I called poison control and they said we should take them to the emergency room. So it took us a while after a few more puking episodes and kids that couldn't move independently, so by the time we actually got to the doctor they were over the worst of it and were just still unsteady and a bit loopy. They didn't have to pump their stomachs or anything and just wanted to keep us for observation for 4 hours.  They got a little more active, but were then just hazardous trying to climb all over things in their drunken state. Their little bit of delirium was actually kind of cute too.  By the time we were done, we had been moved back out to the waiting room just so they could watch the tv and stop going crazy in the one small room - and they were screaming and throwing tantrums and climbing on the furniture and getting into everything we told them not to.  As the nurse came out and was discharging us she said the idea was the effects of the medication should have worn off in 4 hours. Looking at my kids laying on the floor screaming and yelling, I said, "Don't worry - they're exactly back to their normal selves." 

Sadly, I realized my kids are far more tolerable when heavily sedated.  :)

But I realized that thank heavens we didn't have to sit in the ER for four hours with them under normal consciousness or it would have been really unbearable. And boy was I glad Ryan was home uncharacteristically early today. And that it wasn't any worse than it was.

But I do love the interaction between my boys. I'm sure if one of them was a girl it wouldn't be nearly the same. And it warms my heart when I hear Cash say that Phoenix and Ashton are his best friends. I love the things I find them all doing spontaneously together. So to remember that, and just to be thankful that all my boys are home safe and sound tonight and everyone is ok, I'll end with some pictures and forgive all the trouble-making for a few minutes.

And a few good ones to remind me of their cuteness.  :)