Survival of the fittest

Do you ever have one of those days where you think that if your kids make it to bedtime they should count their blessings that they made it through one more day?! That has been my day today since about 11:30. Mostly it's been Vance. I think the terrible twos get worse with each kid. Joel had some trying moments but Vance has just taken the terrible twos and made it into an art form.

Today it started with the back talk. Well I don't know if it really counts as back talk but here's a sample "conversation":

Me: Vance please get out of mommy's room.
Vance: You get out of my room.
Me: Vance that's not funny.
Vance: That's not funny.
Me: Vance please go to time out for back talking mommy.
Vance: You go to time out for back talking.

And so on and so forth. And really part of me thinks it's funny. But part of me is just like: Dude, you're two can you quit it?!

Then as I'm getting ready to make lunch I notice that one entire wall in our dining room has been drawn on with purple permanent marker- did I mention it was THE ENTIRE WALL?! I look at the boys and Vance has the tell tell signs of marker on his hands. I have no idea when he did it. I had been in and out of that area (which is in the WIDE open) half a dozen times this morning. But thought that explained his soaking shirt after he decided he needed to wash his hands. So I learned that rubbing alcohol will take permanent marker off the wall. Now I'm hoping my friend who lives across the street in the duplicate of our townhouse still has the paint they used in the houses.

But then right before naps Vance found stickers and shared them with Joel (Joel was smart enough to ask permission) and so after reiterating that stickers only go on themselves and paper they were off to play with the stickers. And this is what they came back with:

Here's Joel and I wish you could see the rest of his amazing outfit. He's so good at getting dressed all by himself but sometimes the combination is quite interesting. He paired this shirt (which happens to be on backwards) with his amazing navy blue and lime green plaid shorts. He's also gotten to that weird stage where getting a good picture of him is really hard because he either is straining to say "Cheese" or looks terrified of the camera. This was truly the best of all the pictures I tried to take and half his head is cut off.

And here's Vance. Man I love this kid! He is definitively giving us a run for our money but he just has such a fun personality and constantly makes me laugh. I see so much of Tj in him.