Exorcist mom and the Easter Bunny

My kids are filling their own Easter eggs right now while they hurl mock insults at each other. "Take your snoogy nose and you stinky mouth and get out of here!" I'd intervene, but they're laughing hysterically, and that's such a nice sound. I was laughing earlier when the 6 year old told me, "me and my friend Ryan toot together at school." (sorry, Ryan's mom) "You what?!" "We toot. You know...[makes armpit noises] We're trying to make up our own language of toots. That would be so cool to just [armpit fart] for hi and [double pit fart] for bye."

I bet it's wrong for a mom to laugh at that, but what was I supposed to do?

It didn't take too long for our amusement to take a turn south though. They ganged up on me earlier to get me to give them sugary snacks right before dinner. LITERALLY 10 minutes before I intended to feed them! The whining got so bad that I yelled at them in a low, mean voice that was so scary I wasn't sure it was mine. And now my throat hurts. Did it work? Not so much. And as my husband reminds me, the money we spent on parenting CDs was well spent!

This is a picture of us on the polar Express train at Christmas, and the face I'm making as I speak "firmly" to my son is authentic. He had just stepped on my lap after I told him not to, and his falling off my lap and into my face shifted my contact lens. This is the moment that followed-captured for posterity by my better half. I kept it to remind me how ridiculous I look when I scold my kids. At least I was quiet. Wish I had a recording to remind me how I sound when I get so mad the Exorcist voice comes out. But now that I'm hoarse and can't talk at all from yelling, my beloved might appreciate that one moment of bad parenting on my part is about to result in a night of silence for him.