tap, tap...is this thing on?

I think my microphone is broken. I have two days to figure out a way to fix it before school is out and the summer fun commences. Because the one thing I do know is that I will not make it through the next three months being ignored ALL day long. And I'm sure that my troops will quickly tire of the constant asking, asking, pleading, begging, and finally yelling that will ensue if things continue as they have been. This is a normal phase, right? Even the best of kids, which mine are, have a hidden switch that allows them to be two feet in front of you and not hear a word you are saying, right? I tell myself this to feel better.

Now this one, she may not do what I ask her to, but at least she gives me a response when I talk to her! Asking to comb her hair generally results in a "NO", so we drop the issue unless it is a special occasion. Leaving the house in general is not a special occasion, by the way. Besides, even when I do comb her hair, before long it looks like a slightly tamer version of this.



Or I ask her to put her clothes back on, and instead she puts on this.


Did you notice, by the way, that her pajamas are on backwards in the pictures above? And yes, she slept in them that way, because my current mantra is "Don't make the two year old scream." So I ask, is a screaming response better than no response at all?