Giggles seriously piss me off!

We're going through a phase around our house.

It's not good.

We've reached the point where the slightest smile or giggle has me seeing red, blood pressure rising and I become unable to control the words that come out of my mouth.

This is not natural. This is not good. This is happening daily.

For whatever reason my sons have decided that they don't need to listen to me or help with anything around our house. They look me in the eye when I make a request, acknowledge me and walk off to giggle with their brothers.

I should be focused on how much my sons love each other. I should be focused on how well they play together and revel in the fact that the phrase "I'm bored" is never uttered around my house. I should marvel and bask in their love and affection for each other.

But no. I can't do that. I'm too pissed off. Can I blame the pregnancy hormones?

Every single bloody time they leave my eyesight they play and completely forget what they are supposed to do. As I get larger/more lazy I have really started to count on the fact that they can do things without me. Turns out, they cant. They can waste entire days using their gosh darn imaginations to entertain each other and nothing else gets done.

Of all the ridiculous problems to have right? I've tried bribing them, rewarding them, punishing them, ignoring them, helping them etc... and nothing seems to work. After being ground for Easter weekend and all of us being miserable i found myself in a very dark place where I was looking for them to screw up. My husband wanted to reward them every time they focused for even 5 seconds so he finally had Larry beg me for a reset. Knowing how bad I felt and how exhausted I was with the current system I caved with a lot of warnings. Approximately 1.5 days later they had done it again. We were on our Friday chores (change your sheets, vacuum the floors and straighten bedrooms) and they just wouldn't do anything but play and giggle.

I couldn't mentally handle another weekend of grounding so I took my friends suggestion and sent them to bed.

At 5:30pm.

I immediately felt better.

They were all tired and there was a good chance that some of the behavior was coming from the fact that they were overtired. They all woke up an hour or so later and some helped and some stayed tired but the giggles had stopped. However, this morning they all woke up and immediately did their morning chores and we were able to start the day on a positive note. this was a minor miracle. We had donuts at the park and got the errands for the weekend done. Not sure if I'm teaching lessons or caving in but... my blood pressure is back in normal range and those veins have stopped popping out of my forehead so I think we'll go with a modified reset/nap program for a few days and see if its successful.

For now I am just really looking forward to the day when I can enjoy the sound of giggles again. Giggles are the epitome of innocence and joy and yet I'm cringing every time I type the word.

Hope this post made you feel a little less crazy and appreciate the next giggle you hear. Please don't call CPS on me.

Is there any adorable thing your kids do that makes you nuts? Do they ever disrespect you in the sweetest way possible?