Today wasn't a great day. Everyone was out of sorts. This whole week has actually been pretty rough!! Aiden is going through some MAJOR terrible two's (and throwing temper tantrums almost constantly for every reason under the sun). Brady continues to be quite clingy and cries a lot if I'm not holding him plus he's got another molar coming in and yikes does that poor thing take the teething hard!! Logan has been pretty good, but went to bed really late last night because he "couldn't sleep" <-- what else is new.

So what did I have planned for our day?? Here's a hint: three words that make me shiver with dread and anticipation, three words that mean I'll either end up in tears...or the boys will end up in tears....or both....three words that I usually avoid at ALL costs. What is this apocalyptic utterance? "Formal Picture Day" (can you, like I, hear the doom-filled music in the background....da da da DAAAAAAA???)

I do have to say that today was a step up from the time when I went with Logan, then 18 months old, and Aiden, then only 3 months old (Aiden was naked for his pictures on a blanket, crying up a storm, the photographer stepped out, Logan ran out of the room, I ran after him, but couldn't find him up front....we later found him locked in a closet in another picture room....Aiden was still naked and sobbing when I went to find a bobby pin from my bag to pick the lock on the door where Logan was....ok....it wasn't THAT bad today) BUT....

* Logan was AWESOME for about 5 minutes and then suddenly stopped smiling and said "I'm too tired....I'm done"
* Aiden wouldn't cooperate much. We got a few pictures of him, but he was doing his "evil grin" a lot of the time and kept smooshing his face with his hands so he looked goofy
* During 1 attempt to get a picture of the three of them, I was sitting in a chair to the side, holding a crying Brady and trying to calm him down while Aiden and Logan were wrestling (complete with hitting and kicking) on the floor
* Brady would NOT let me put him down or walk away so we got ZERO pictures of him * The photographer was shouting orders to the kids which wasn't helping
* When I would try to direct Aiden, he would hold up his hand in a "stop" motion and say to me "NO!" and then run away to a corner of the room
* The photographer gave the whole scene about 15 minutes and then said "ok....I don't think this is going to work today"....awesome. I booked a follow up appointment......sigh

In exchange for picture cooperation, I had promised the boys a trip to the mall playground, gumballs from the BANK of machines right beside the playground (genius marketing) and lunch at the food court. I had to march them, screaming and crying, to the car after our failed attempt at portraits and explain to them that we weren't going to do those things because they did not fulfill their end of the bargain: behave for pictures. But then I got so sad. I had REALLY wanted to have a fun day together. I really wanted to do all those things. So we drove around the area for about 10 minutes while they cried and cried and cried. I calmed them down, gave them a snack, and a good lecture and said we could go back in for a while....but there would be NO gumballs!!

We played for about 15 minutes, checked out a little mommy store, went to the Disney store where Logan spent his good day money on some army guys from Toy Story, and then got Auntie Anne's for the car ride home. Everyone had a nap....including me.

Fast forward to tonight: Logan had 4 stars at the end of the day and Aiden had 3 (I was being kind!). I let them pick up the playroom so that Aiden could have 4 and get 1 reward (yes, I'm a totally sucker!). They chose a before-bedtime-dance-party. Dance parties always lift my spirits...especially because we play what daddy would consider pretty annoying music: A song from a PASTE CD called "Around the World" and a song by The Ting Tings called Great DJ. I danced too. Next time, I'm taking music to Sears and we'll just take pictures of them dancing. I bet they would look better than the ones I snapped!!!