I wish I had started this blog when Julia (now 5-1/2) was, say, 2-1/3 and Joshua (now 4-1/2) was, say, 14 months old.  'Cuz I'm just wondering if those two could have even held a candle to Susie and Sammy (the current 2 and 1 year olds, respectively) in terms of destruction capabilities.  Either my memory is being benevolent to them or they were my kinder, gentler duo.

I CAN'T KEEP UP WITH THESE TWO!!

It probably has more to do with me being a tad more distracted with 3 older kids than it does with Susanna and Samuel just being more...er...adventurous... right?!??!?!

Their favorite activities of late have been (from their perspective):

• empty large quantities of Cinnamon Toast Crunch onto the family room carpet so as to make sure everyone can get what they want.
• Fill cup after cup after cup after blessed cup of water from our new water cooler then proceed to either pour over and over from one cup to another in an effort to answer the question, "How many pours back and forth does it take to empty all of the contents onto the floor?"...or leave many full cups resting precariously close to the edge of the table to be dumped by the next hapless passerby.
• Unwrap every crayon in the house tiny piece by tiny piece just to make sure they got the color right
• Break every crayon in the house in half because it makes us feel strong
• Play in the toilet every chance I (Sammy) get...this is particularly fun when someone hasn't remembered an important step in using the bathroom...all the while Susie stands by declaring it "Yuck, yuck, yuck" with a crinkled up nose until someone catches them.
• Oh, this is a favorite...any chance I (Sammy) get when we're outside I run to the chicken pen...not to play with chickens, no, anyone can do that...I go for the FOOD...but I gotta move fast 'cuz as soon as momma sees where I'm headed she comes after me for some reason.  As soon as I see I've been caught, I run just as fast as my bow-legged fat little legs will carry me and stuff my mouth as full as I can get it with chicken feed and clamp down my jaw...this is important...I have to clamp down my jaw really tight b/c as soon as momma catches up with me she tries to take away all of the food I just walked so far for.  She says things like, "Why would you want chicken food when we have perfectly good food inside that you didn't eat for lunch?"  I'd try to explain, but, again...must keep a clamped jaw.  When, and only when, my mouth is completely empty and I've swallowed it all, then I can open my mouth again...as soon as that happens momma usually sprays me off with a hose...that's kinda fun, too!
• Recently our big brothers have been playing with legos non-stop...we think this is very fun, too...but not in the same way.  We've found these cool things in each room on the floor...usually near a wall...that have a bunch of open slats in them.  Sometimes, if you sit on top of them you can feel cold air blowing up your shirt and it feels funny, but the neatest thing about these things, I think I've heard them called "vents", is...you can fit stuff down in them.  We've been trying everything...and now you can benefit from our experience...colored pencils, pens, and crayons fit if you slide 'em in just right...but legos...so much fun...you can really just dump a handful on top of the vent and half of 'em will go right down...then you can get down on your knees and look down into the hole to see if any of them were glow-in-the-dark pieces...that's the best!  Sometimes, in certain rooms, we're able to pull the whole slat piece off...and that opens a whole new world of opportunity!  There's really not much that won't fit when we can do that!!  The best thing about this activity is that momma cleans it all up for us (we'd be happy to, but our arms aren't quite long enough) several times a day so that we can do it again...She's the best!!
• We also like to climb things together...couches, counters, tables, bunk beds...We've heard daddy and momma say that "nothing is impossible with God" and we're just testing how that relates to climbing...so far, it's true...everything we've wanted to climb, we have!
• I (Susanna) just started sleeping in a big girl bed!  At first I thought it was really neat and never got out of bed because I just loved my new bed so much.  Then, one day during nap time I thought of an outfit that I had wanted to wear that day so I decided to go look for it.  20 minutes later I had all of my drawers emptied, Julia's closet cleared out and I still did not find that outfit.  Momma cleaned it all up and I've been trying to find it every day since that day...sometimes at night, too.
• When the older kids are doing school, Sammy is in the pac-n-play and Susie is on the floor next to our table and with WAY too much access to puzzles, games and every other small piece thing you can think of.  Lately, while I've been helping the older kids, she quietly takes puzzle after puzzle or game after game and dumps them into the pac-n-play with Sam.  When they're quiet, I forget to look over at them quite as much...bad idea...when they're quiet it means they're making a mess!  So at the end of many a school day, we have to completely re-assemble all of our puzzles and games.

I could go on and on and on...what a blessing they are...but oh, they are sooooo busy!  Some days I think they need their own nanny!