nannying has gotten the best of me this week. i've become this mean yelling person. but seriously, they just keep hitting each other. all the time. shouting is the only thing that has any kind of effect. bribing doesn't even work, they can't do the whole delayed-gratification thing. and then today, a miracle happened. 

they actually wanted to go outside and play.

so we went to the playground and played. and collected rocks. we saw a bottle rocket launch in the nearby field. and sat in the grass and ate our snacks. another small miracle happened and the younger boy and girl voluntarily shared their snacks without being asked to. and then we came home and decorated our rocks. 

granted, they still whined about really, really ridiculous things ("but i wanted the rock that CassiDee took!" "DeLayne told me how she made this color and when i tried it, it didn't work! make her go to time out!") and were constantly slapping each other, but today i finally got them to do something that i thought was (at least in my mind) a central part of childhood.

and tomorrow we're going to the aquarium. and then i have two glorious weeks off.

The kiddos' creativity mainly comes in the form of supporting various sports teams

Listening to: "The Way I Am", Ingrid Michaelson. (I have no idea why, but babysitting always makes me think of her music).