Why, Oh Why?

This is belated, but Saturday was crazy. I wish I could explain it away that there was a full moon, but I can't. All four wee ones are usually pretty congenial, at least in my opinion. Those of you who experience us in real life may disagree.

But Saturday. Saturday was bizarre. Lots of tears and we didn't know why. Well, we did know why, but the reasons were silly. One of the babies would destroy something Ainsley had just created - I only have two arms and zone defense doesn't work well with 3-on-1. Johnny is wonderfully attached to his dad, to the point where he goes psycho if John leaves the room. Lizzy was in a good mood, so that was helpful.

All of this was tolerable and normal, though. Something happened after the afternoon nap, though, that sent the world spinning out of control. First, Johnny stole Gracie's lovie right when they woke up. Hysterics. Ainsley somehow got trapped under a fallen baby-gate (felt bad about that one b/c she was screaming for me and I kept using the "I don't come to you, you come to me if you need something" - oops). Hysterics. A crumbgobbler, it doesn't matter which one, would freak because they had shut themselves in a room. Hysterics. Lizzy and Gracie were STARVING and needed a snack, while I was calming Ainsley down and therefore couldn't get it for them RIGHT NOW! Hysterics. Gracie refused to come down the stairs on her own to get the snack. Hysterics. She finally, fortunately, complied because what happened next would have been disastrous...

Ainsley decided it would be a good idea to ride her nylon (read: super fast) sleeping bag down the stairs. This is usually not a big deal for the rest of the world. Kids ride things like pillows, etc, down the stairs all the time. I did it when I was a kid. It was not a good idea for Ainsley for two reasons:
1. She was completely inside the sleeping bag at the time.
2. There is a metal gate at the bottom of the stairs.
You all are intelligent people. You can see how this ended. All I heard was: thunkity, thunk, thunk, thunk, CRASH, WAAAHHHHHHHHHH! I ran over to see Ainsley, in a balled-up sleeping bag, wedged under the bottom part of the gate she had taken out. Hysterics.

Did I mention she missed taking Gracie out w/the gate by about 12 inches? Hysterics from Gracie because it scared the fire out of her.

Did I mention all of this took place over the course of about 1/2-hour?

John was pulling out of the driveway to take Johnny to get his hair cut as this was happening. It took me a good 10 minutes to feel sorry for my oldest. Seriously.

Welcome to The Circus.