Must Be The Phase Of The Moon

I was going to write this last night, but it turns out it was just as well that I waited; tonight would have been a duplicate posting.

My children are crazy.

It's possible that they've both hit "an age" at the same time; maybe their temperaments are starting to match like women's periods will after living together; maybe it's the changing of the seasons. Whatever it is, they've both gone utterly mad.

Mornings are typically ok, but evenings are insane. They oscillate between totally cheerful and completely melted down, frequently within moments. Actually, let me modify that; they go from happy to freaking out within moments. Going back to happy takes way longer than it should (though it is a sudden as a rainbow when they do).

Joey has started screaming like a banshee when he's upset, and Sam has been losing his s#$t at the drop of a hat. Joey will immediately start to wail if something isn't just right - like, say, he doesn't get to eat candy for supper - and then sulk (if we're lucky) or really scream (if we're not). Sam refused to sit on the right in the bathtub - where Joey was already sitting - freaked out when I pulled him out, wailed to be let back in, then refused to touch the water. (Literally; he held himself above the water with hands on one side of the tub and his feet on the other.) Freaked out when I pulled him out then, too.

They've been doing this for a couple of days now, and it's really hard to still be gentle and empathetic (though something is certainly pathetic...)

This too shall pass; I'm just hoping it does so quickly. It'd be nice if the kids survived until, say, Christmas.