love monsters.

man, do these girls give me a hard time.

we had a rough experience at the grocery store the other day. it was mostly my fault, because i took them to a somewhat inappropriate grocery store (one that doesn't furnish double-seater shopping carts, one where you bag your own groceries) and it was cutting it pretty close to nap time. then i decided to try and buy a super cheap steal of a wagon and it was in a gigantic box, so i was pushing the cart and balancing the box on top while holding a squirming poppy and trying to keep ellie from running wild through the store... it was possibly the longest thirty minutes of my life since childbirth.

and we ended up spending almost as long in the parking lot just making sure everyone had clean drawers and the groceries were loaded carefully and the massive box was squeezed in there somehow. i am not above bribes, so when we finally pulled out of the parking lot they were both happily making a mess of some soft sugar cookies. poppy finished hers quickly and then fell asleep, covered in sprinkles and frosting.

we got home and i was exhausted, but i still had to unload all the groceries and put them away while the girls napped and snuggled. there are no naps for me these days and i was looking forward to an evening of forcing them to eat delicious, healthy food (or giving in to the demands for pb&js) followed by grumpiness and screaming from two kids that sure seem to hate to sleep at night. daunting.

we have lots of evenings like that and lots of long, long nights. i know it's part of the gig, but it does get old sometimes.

and then they pull stuff like this:

that's right, a calm moment during bedtime that was not prompted by me and not involving the (marvelous, magical) television. i caught ellie reading poppy her favorite book. poppy was making all the animal noises and ellie was remembering the words the best she could (she remembers them pretty well).

oh, my heart.

they can spend all day biting and smacking each other, throwing dirt from the potted plants on the floor,   screaming outside the bathroom door while i shower, having tantrums in public places and then, for about five minutes, they can be the sweetest little girls you've ever seen.

i love these little monsters all day long, even when they are genuinely being monsters.

(and i may love them a little extra when they are sleeping. shhh.)

(p.s. - dear poppy's hair: feel free to show up any time now. i think we've waited long enough.)