THEY ARE BACK

This is just for me to vent--and I have been doing a lot of that lately. Especially the past 2 1/2 months, but also a lot this past week!
Kassie and RJ have arrived home and I am done in! I am to old for this full-time mothering.
We once had a patient at Dr. Reiser's office say that being a mother was "SO DAILY" and it was only her first baby! How did other women make it through the day, week or even month. Well, it is daily and in the past eight days, I have had at least one child with me--generally two and sometimes three. I got RJ's mother to come up and watch them for an hour while I went to the grocery store. Isn't that pathetic that one hour seems like a week when you have cabin fever?
I don't really have a lot of patience with children, but I lose my patience a lot more when Austin comes home from school and starts picking fights with Ashlynne and then the crying and whining begin. He listens so well in class and helps the teacher a lot. He also ought to know better than pick a fight with her, because, like Genette (and still like Genette), Ashlynne fights back and can sometimes get the best of him.
I have tried reasoning, bribery, threats, reverse psycology, you name it I have tried it, and still he is ruthless.
Then there is Andrew! Man this kid has really done me in---I really don't remember Austin and Ashlynne being so needy at 2 years old. Maybe because he is the third child that neediness takes over. But he is tough on me and I just want to crawl in a hole somedays without this child--even though I love him. I maintain that he is possessed. He is a little demon. He gets mad, he will head butt you, you tell him no and he will haul off with a nice punch or slap to the face--sometimes he tries to cratch out your eyes--but he is so cute, but at near-fifty he is wearing me out far too fast.
Ashlynne is a little prima-dona. She will sing all the songs, dance all the dances, all while watching herself in the mirror. If she spots lipstick--it has to go on at least ever 2 minutes and she is constanlty checking out the placement of said lipstick in the mirror. I really hasn't helped much in the past week that she now has a "boyfriend", she is much worse when sheknows she is going to see him!!!
Now to Kass and RJ--They cam home, talked to the kids for about 20 minutes, went to their room, started to argue and ignored their children for another 30 minutes, came out to put them to bed and now I can say--it's great to have them home. It is such a peaceful, restful, spiritually enlightening downer when they are home. The sad thing is that it is those three adorable children that suffer and there is no changing them. They are both as stubborn as jack-asses and neither will give in.
So now I have bented and vitched.....I can go to bed in my own bed that I haven't felt in over a week!