Angel no more...

I have always felt like God blessed me with four wonderful, for the most part well-behaved boys. Holden was the best baby, and I always said that if I had him first I would have had plenty more... well, I didn't, yet I still did. Anywhooo... as I said, he has always been a really good baby, easy going, sweet, loving, loves his brothers...you get the picture.

Well, my "Sweet Baby Boy" has hightailed it out of here, and has been replaced by "Dear God, nail everything down, and duck tape that kid - Boy". Terrible twos have swept in with a vengeance! He's CRAZY! I am sure he is just trying to exist with the four older brothers leading the way, however, they are pretty good to him, I must say!

I had to go by the library today and return some books and pick up some new ones. Well, mistake number one, Russ was not going with us. So, Holden asked for "Daddy, Daddy, Where's Daddy? Daddy... Daaaadddddyyyy!" I told Holden that we would go into the library and then home to daddy. "Hmmmpppht!" was his reply! I should have turned around at that moment and just used the drop box! How important is it for my kids to read during the summer anyway? But, no... we went forth with the plan.


Blake decided that today was the day he needed to get his own library card... tick, tock, tick, tock... that would be the sound of the ticking time bomb waiting to go off (aka Holden). Counter Lady says, "Ma'am, Did you know you had an expired license? You know you could get a fine for that?" AWESOME! Once we had the card in hand, Holden promptly threw his shoes on the floor and looked at me with such defiance in his eyes. I explained that he must put his shoes on, and he looked at me and walked away. My head was telling me all sorts of things to do... but due to the very crowded location we were in, I grabbed his hand and tried to walk him over to the books so that I could grab a few for the boys in my haste and get out of there. Not so fast... rent-a-cop security guard very disgusted with my parenting at that moment said, "YOU HAVE TO WEAR SHOES IN HERE!" So, again, the battle ensued. I sat him in the closest chair, and told him that we would not be leaving until he put his shoes on. Apparently, that was ok with him as he sat down and looked at me and smiled. Great... so now what? Then I remembered, Russ was home waiting for us.

"Holden, don't you want to go home and see Daddy?" ... The shoes went on!

So, we are racing to find the books that Landon had requested, Blake is looking for a certain book, I look over at Holden who is now scaling the book shelf... Spiderman was halfway to the top when I saw him and I almost immediately had a stroke! I grabbed him, and told Blake that we were DONE!

At the check out desk Holden is trying to take the books off of the closest shelf, so, I try to deter him by picking him up so that he cannot reach... at which time he starts to scream at the top of his lungs. I did not think I would make it out of the library without me having a nervous breakdown... but low and behold I did. The total visit only lasted about 15 minutes from start to finish, but that was THE LONGEST 15 minutes I have experienced in quite some time. "Barefoot Horror Movie Screaming Spiderman" stressed me out to the max! The sad part about it, was that I only had Blake and Holden with me, I cannot imagine how much worse it could have been with 2 more added to the mix.

I am already missing my sweet little Holden...