The past week was a killer. We can laugh about it all now, but at the time I was a bit of a mess. I apologize to my family for being a stressball, and I apologize to my neighbors for allllll the barking holy crap.

Within one week:

* My family visited, and I loved that they could make it out here, but 9 people in a small house is just a lot, you know?

* I have tweeted often about how much my dog Russell drives me crazy with the barking and neediness. Well, double that, because my family brought their dog, and double it again, because Russell turned his bad behavior up to 11. He didn’t just bark a lot, he barked ALLL day and night. He didn’t just beg, he literally stole food off people plates and OUT OF THEIR HANDS WHILE THEY WERE EATING OMG WTF. And he bit my sister… not badly, but really??? And finally, to cap things off, he peed in our bed. On my side.

* My folks refinished our dining room floor which was chipping and peeling, and that was awesome, but it did mean that on top of everything we had to live with the dining room table and chairs in the living room for a couple of days.

* Miles’s favorite game of sitting in my car playing with all the buttons and switches resulted in my car’s battery dying, which of course we did not discover until we had somewhere to go and got two kids ready and buckled up in the car and… shit.

* My dad also bought us a dishwasher (CUE ANGELS SINGING!) which was beyond awesome, but in the uninstall old/install new process, we had a pipe burst at the main water line into the house which involved people screaming, water gushing, emergency calls to the water company and plumber, another kind of waterworks as I broke down in tears, etc. etc. It was fun. NOW WE HAVE A DISHWASHER!

* We found out we have lead paint in the all the window wells of the first floor. Which are right at kid level. Wonderful. Haven’t done anything about that yet.

* I tried to change Julius’s diaper in bed in the middle of the night to avoid waking up the rest of the house, and he projectile pooped all over me and the sheets. Just one of those little things.

* One morning Miles woke up at 4 am because Julius was making a lot of noise (he kind of TURBO GRUNTS out his poops) and hysterically screamed for 45 minutes before I figured out he needed me to turn the hall light back on, and then he fell right back to sleep.

* My neighbors’ five little girls hopped the fence to come play with my sisters in our backyard one evening, which set an unfortunate precedent. Now they are coming over at least once a day, at the worst possible times (naptime and bedtime, of course). One night just as Mike and I were getting Miles into his pajamas, they were suddenly all in our house attempting to take M’s toys outside. Um.

* On the last night that my family was here, Miles pooped in the bath. Only the second time he’s done that ever, so yeah, awesome timing. The next morning he woke up in a puddle of pee at 4:30 am because he’d been playing in his diaper and apparently pointed the firehose UP. Later that morning while Mike was changing his poopy diaper he peed all over himself… I’ve heard of potty trained kids regressing when a baby was born, but a toddler still in diapers regressing?

* After my family left I attempted a solo outing with the two boys. We were going to go to the library. This should be simple enough, right? Between feedings, diaper changes, me grabbing a shower, getting everyone dressed and ready, it took 4 hours to leave the house. We lasted 10 minutes at the library before Miles had a major tantrum over me not allowing him to slam a door repeatedly. So I had to haul a newborn, a 2 year old, and a giant diaper bag out of there (with no books) and go right back home. Won’t be trying that again anytime soon.