Mornin' ya'll

Could it be?  Could I be awaking from my blogging slumber?  Seems the mood has struck me this morning for a little writing.  Aw, I don't know, could be the vacation we're on in Panama City Beach, FL.  The sound of the waves on hitting the shore outside my condo door has that effect on me.

We got here yesterday after flying most of the day.  I called it the boys' first flight; Carson likes to point out it's his THIRD flight, but that he gets to remember this one.  Frankly, I'm the one who needs to forget flying with him when he was 15 months old...

Anyway, our flights were uneventful and the boys were good little traveling buddies.  Of course, they'd loaded their backpacks with all kinds of stuff, but they were happy to watch out the window a lot of the time.  And Cooper's enthralled these days with "tootsie putty," so we spent most of our layover in Memphis watching it bounce all over the airtport.

And for the parenting dilemma of the day, by the way, can I just say Dwayne and I are beyond frustrated with Coop's inability to keep his freaking hands off things?  Every store we go to, every vehicle we're in, every restaurant...he must be touching everything, punching buttons willy-nilly, flipping switches or levers, or stacking and sorting stuff.  So while we waited on our flight I decided to frustrate myself even more and walk them through an Elvis-inspired gift shop in the airport, and he's touching everything in sight (must get that boy a guitar) and he becomes intrigued with a box of mints shaped like a guitar.  Pretty soon the mints come open and fly all over the floor, kind of like one of those surprise snakes out of a can.  So I got on to him maybe a little too harshly and I must have hurt his feelings because then he burst into tears, in the middle of the puddle of mints.  I tried to pay for it but the clerk mumbled something like "damage it out" and I thanked her and swooped my traumatized son outta there.

Thing is, even with my telling him "keep your hands to yourself," a million times a day, he doesn't seem to remember that advice when I need him to the most...

Never a vacation for being a parent I suppose.

So this morning I got up at a crazy hour for being on vacation but I got to step out onto the balcony and witness sunlight here...it's supposed to be rainy for the next day or so.  And the sound of the waves...I could just listen to that forever.  And all three of my boys are still asleep so it is extra peaceful around here. 

But come to think of it, it's gonna be peaceful when they all wake up, too.