Who Are These Kids?

I don't know what's going on. Maybe it's a virus, maybe it's Christmas fever, maybe it's alien abduction, but the boys have definitely got some Jekyll/Hyde going on this week.

Here's a few examples:

Sunday afternoon. We're setting up the Christmas tree and the boys are getting more and more worked up. We send them downstairs and put the gate up to keep Andrew upstairs. After about 30 seconds, they decide they want to come back up. Amber and I have a huge Christmas decoration mess everywhere and would prefer them to not get into it. They have a huge fit at the top of the stairs and one of them (probably Daniel) yanks the pressure-fit gate down towards him and Josh. Unfortunately, they are at the top of the stairs when doing this. I go down and untangle them from the gate and boots and they are pretty happy for the most part.

---===---

Sunday night. I'm making supper and I hear the boys playing with their VeggieTales nativity set. Jimmy and Jerry Gourd are wearing a cow costume. They've been playing nicely for a couple of hours now. I hear the following conversation:

Moooo!

Aaaaaaah!

We're sorry Baby Jesus. It's just us - Jimmy and Jerry. We were just pretending to be a cow.

I forgive you Jimmy and Jerry

---===---

Sunday night supper. Amber asked Daniel to set the table and he was too busy playing with his Veggies, so I did it. We were all seated at the table about to start eating our delicious roast beef dinner. Daniel snapped and started screaming, "I WANTED TO SET THE TABLE! AAAAAAAaaaaaaahhhHHH!"

I picked him up and took him back to his room to cool off. I went back a few minutes later and he apologized. He came out to the dining room to apologize to Amber - all happy and relaxed. He saw the table again and said, "I WANTED TO SET THE TABLE! AAAAAAAaaaaaaahhhHHH!" Back to his room...

Several minutes later, he came out slinking on the floor and popped up, "Surprise!". We welcomed him back to the table and he went into a bit of a trance. He took the serving plate of roast beef and started stabbing at large pieces with his fork.

"I want all the chicken! I am going to be big! I'm going to eat all the chicken!" I gently reached across and took the plate away from him when he had about half a pound of beef. This brought out Mr. Hyde again.

"I AM EATING ALL THE CHICKEN!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaHHHHHHHHH!"

He went back to his room for another 5 minutes or so and when he came out again, he was normal for the rest of the night.

Well, for the most part anyway. When he was eating, he "noticed" that he didn't have his name tag from church on anymore. I assured him that it was okay and he doesn't need a name tag at home. I'm not so sure myself about that though - a tag that said "Crazy Daniel" or "Normal Daniel" would be nice to have.