Today was a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day. I want it to be smudged from the record books and never thought of again.

It started off fine, with the sun shining and I even got to sleep in until 9 am!!!! Then I got out of bed - first mistake. I should've stayed in bed with the covers over my head and hoped my boys would fend for themselves. But alas, I got out of bed.

The morning started pretty normal - I fed both boys and cleaned up the house before sitting down for a bowl of cereal, then Liam went down for his normal nap at 10 am and I got ambitious - second mistake. I threw on some sweats, donned Noah in hat, gloves and sweatshirt and decided to take care of my yard. Before Liam awoke at 12:30 pm I had raked and bagged all the leaves in the front and back yard, taken down all Halloween decorations and stowed them safely away in the basement and put up all of our Christmas lights a full month early! I did the last thing after learning a hard, cold lesson last year - I found myself on a rickety ladder with hat, gloves and a down jacket on in 30 degree weather freezing my bum off hanging up Christmas lights in late November ... so I learned my lesson and put them up today in 45 degree weather - so much warmer.

Now, although this all seems like a very good morning spent - getting stuff done - I was totally exhausted and unshowered and undressed by the time Liam woke up and it is just NOT good to be unprepared when Liam wakes up. Liam requires a large quantity of a few things. Those things are food and sleep. I tried to get him happy by giving him a little snack so I could jump in the shower, but no ... after the cup of yogurt, I pulled him out of his highchair and he seemed fine, for about 5 minutes, before he broke down.

And the rest of the day goes downhill from there ... just think about being serenaded by a wailing Liam outside the bathroom door while showering. Think about Noah hitting Liam with a train, his fist, the train tracks, Liam's blanket and several other objects - then Noah telling me it was OK and that he didn't need to go on time out for hitting because he already hugged and kissed Liam and said sorry ... but Liam was still screaming. Imagine Noah wetting his pants and gaining negative points on his potty chart because he completely regressed on potty training in one day to where he was 8 months ago. Now imagine explaining "negative points" to Noah. Then think about a LOT of crying by Liam and a LOT of yelling by Liam and a LOT of talking and questioning by Noah. It's truly like being pecked to death by ducks .... all .... day ..... long. Then imagine me escaping to the kitchen and locking myself in there cramming 3 Musketeers bars, kit kats and Jelly bellies in my mouth to deal with the stress.

It's over now (because I sent Noah to bed a half hour early) and I am going to watch "So You Think You Can Dance" and binge on Halloween candy.