Why Does It Seem....

....like the minute I answer a phone call my children go buck wild? Prior to me saying 'hello' things can be almost picturesque, children giggling and frolicking about. I pick up and it's like 'Toddlers Gone Wild.'

What really does me in is my boys seem to save the most outrageous, most insane behavior for when I'm talking to a friend who doesn't have any kids. You know that friend? The one you want to make think your life is amazing being married with two small children. It's always following a loud scream that I get the best responses:

• Wow! I can't wait to have kids.
• Sure wish I could be you.
• Is that how it always is at your house?
• Gretch, there is never a time we talk that I don't hear someone screaming. (How do I respond to that?!)
• Children are gifts from God.

I was trying to catch up the other day with a friend I hadn't spoken to in months. The boys were behaving in the typical mom-on-the-phone fashion. After countless times of me giving them the stink eye and me silently mouthing 'behave!' I walked away to try and wrap up the conversation in peace.

Big Mistake.

I returned just in time to stop Harrison from pulling Gavin off the tall kitchen chair onto the floor. Gavin, who had pushed the chair in front of the wall-mounted oven, was trying to open the door and retrieve dinner!

The moral of the story is for the friends without children, save their phone calls for when the kids are safely in bed asleep.



By the way, I do think I have an amazing life, with an amazing husband and kids.