Here is the reason....

...why I am blogging the weather and silly time-wasting games:

It is Spring Break. That means all three kids are home. All week. AND the sun is up earlier each day, which means Joshua is, too. This morning he was up before my alarm went off at 6:15, pestering his brothers for someone to play with him, so now they're ALL sleep-deprived. I have no idea how I'll handle the summer. And here, verbatim, I shall reprint the exchange I JUST had with Joseph, which is a beautiful representation of the phase he's currently stuck in:

"Mommy, want juice."

"Juice?"

"Yeah, juice."

"Show me."

I open fridge. Joseph grabs the apple juice. Then he says, "Apple juice!"

"This apple juice?"

(Pointing) "Apple juice!"

"You sure?"

"Yeah! Juice!"

I open the juice. I show him it next to his cuppy. I say, "Juice? In your cuppy?"

"Juice."

(I show him the beginnings of me pouring.) "You want apple juice?"

(He helps me pour.) "Yeah! Juice!"

"Okay!" I finish pouring, put on his lid, put away the juice. Then I go to hand him his cuppy. He heads for the cupboard and says

"WANT NESQUIK!!!!"

As I type, and it's been about 10 minutes, he's under the table screaming bloody murder about my inability to understand that he wanted Nesquik. And my unwillingness to get it for him RIGHT NOW. This phase kicked in about three days ago. Ben and Josh both went through it, so I know it has an end, but it doesn't make it any more fun to deal with. So I look up the weather and "enhance my productivity" via Dave Barry's blog. Ah, Spring Break! What a vacation you are!

UPDATE: About three minutes ago, Joseph very morosely asked to sit on my lap, which I took as a peace offering. Then he very morosely asked for a banana.

We're out of bananas.

UPDATE: It's now about 10 minutes since he asked for a banana, and about two minutes since he stopped crying about our lack thereof. And he's asleep.