Life in a nutshell lately

I haven't been doing a very good job of staying on top of things with my blog lately. There are many reasons for that. The first is that Mel has been working longer hours so for a couple weeks he wasn't home much in the evenings. Things have settled down a bit, but he's working out of another office, so he has a longer commute. Despite that, I'm thankful he has a job, and a good one at that. He was also sick last week which put him out of commission for two solid days. I always find it funny how men (I'm generalizing) can barely take care of themselves when they're sick, let alone their children. We had Jacob's school conference last week and Mel was too sick to go, our babysitting option fell through and I didn't want to take both boys to the conference. I ended up putting on a cartoon for Kyle and leaving him home with Mel who got out of bed to "rest" on the couch and keep an eye on Kyle. I called Mel after the conference to see if he wanted me to pick him up something to eat and I could barely understand him on the phone. He was completely out of it. Instead of stopping to buy Jacob ice cream like I promised, we came straight home. I was a little worried about Kyle's well being. Thankfully, Kyle had fallen asleep watching his cartoon and all was well.
Speaking of Kyle. He's the other reason I can't get anything done. I jokingly told Mel yesterday that Kyle was full of piss and vinegar. Mel gave me a look like how could you say something like that about our son? But also smirked because he knows it's true. He's just difficult lately- demanding, sassy, defiant, pesty and just downright difficult. I know it's a phase. Jacob went through it at about this same age. We tried every possible discipline technique with Jacob. At one point we were so desperate we took ALL his toys out of his room and he had to earn them back. He was shocked and sad for about ten minutes and then he told us, "I don't need my toys. I'll just look at my books." I remember calling Mel at work one day asking if boarding schools took three year olds- and I was serious. Kyle is nowhere near that point yet and I pray he never gets there, but when he's naughty... he's NAUGHTY.

Mel has been good about giving me "my time". He graciously took the boys most of Saturday to give me a break and allow me time to work on a project that I've been wanting to start for a while. They went to Nickelodeon Universe and then out to dinner. They came home and surprised me with a present...
...and I love it. The caricature totally captures their expressions.