Serious conversation with a toddler LOL

I hear all the time "How do you do it?" "You must be very busy." "Your hands are sure full." I always smile and nod and take in all the praise, thinking to myself if only you knew how easy my kids are 99% of the time, you wouldn't think I am anything special. Well the trio have been kicking my ass lately. Xander especially, the boy is everywhere, into everything, or trying to get into everything....and our house is pretty darn baby proofed. All day he is trying to climb the gate by the kitchen to see if anything on the counter is within reach of his little mitts, then he goes after the only kitchen drawer he can reach while he is perched on said gate, next he is across the room trying to climb over our makeshift toy boxes to get into the fireplace. Now with the Christmas tree up he tries to climb the gate we put around it to yank off ornaments. Every time I pull him away from one thing he makes a B line for another. Not only is he driving me nuts, but Lily is picking up on everything he does and has become his little accomplice. Jason put a baby lock on the drawer today so that will be one less thing for him to mess with, and the tree will be down in 7 days (oh Lord 7 more days.) I really wish we would have waited until now to put it up, I would not be so over it by now. Next year we will wait until just 10 or so days before Christmas. Xander has started getting very pissy with me for stopping him from doing these things, he expresses this in a shrill girly scream of annoyance and a bite to my hand when I pull him away. Today he was yet again trying to climb in the fireplace, I tried pulling him back but he started to fight me and nearly missed smacking his head good on the bricks. I sat next to him and pulled on his shoulder to get his attention, he turned my way with a scream and seemed about to attack my face. So I had the first "I do this because I love you" conversation with my son. I patted his little blonde head and told him all about how the fireplace is dirty, and that I wasn't sure if candle wax is poisonous...at the least it would taste like poo. I then told him how I just don't want to see him get hurt or sick. I went on and on telling him each thing he was doing that I didn't like and why. He actually sat there looking at me and listening, then he leaned in close to me and gave me a kiss, just like that. During our 2 min heart to heart Hayden was standing over me semi gently inspecting my hair, I looked up at her and told her the grays would be gone tomorrow. She smiled down at me, faked like she was going to give me a kiss and then drooled in my eye. I would like to say our talk did Xander some good but it did not...at least I got a kiss out of it LOL

A few pics of the Three Amigos...days like today they are sure lucky they're cute.

Lily "loving" on O.J. she is not a dog person like Hayden, but she sure likes this cat. She kept following him around and then laying on him LOL