Crime and Punishment

We aren't having a good afternoon. I have been trying to really clean the house because we are heading to Elijah's mom's for the holiday and I like things to be nice and clean when I come back home from a trip. SO this morning I headed into the hall bathroom that is really only used for potty trips and teeth brushing. All the bathing is done in my bathroom so I'm really not in this hall bath that much. Elijah brushes their teeth and Avery prefers my toilet during the day for some reason. All that being said, I haven't cleaned that hall bath in about 2 weeks. My mistake. I go in there this morning to help one of them brush and I see toilet paper all over the floor, because why in the world would you put in in the can 2 inches away?? Silly me. Anyway, I clean it up and then go get a fresh trash bag and begin to change the can. I won't get into the nasty details of how I noticed the can wasn't clean, but let's just say it was more yellow than white on the outside. I about gagged and yelled at Benjamin to come and explain it to me. We've had this fight a lot, he just doesn't pay attention to what he's doing in there. So I go and clean the trash can again and I moved on about my day. I just went in there a little while ago to clean the rest of the bathroom and decided that even though that tub isn't used for anything but storage, I should go ahead and scrub it, too. I bend down and started wiping it out when I noticed more yellow. Lots more. He has apparently been using the tub as a back up for when he's not in the mood to lift a lid. I am so mad right now. I sent him to his room until Elijah gets home. I know 'boys will be boys' and at some point haven't we all wondered things like this?? Like what would it be like to pee in a HUGE toilet? Curiosity gets the best of all of us from time to time, but hopefully a few hours in his room will make him think about it before he makes that decision again.
Now to Avery. She has been a pistol the last couple of days. It's like she's regressed to a toddler again. She dumped all the crayons, finger paints in her applesauce, strips all her clothes and runs around naked...just wild child. I let it slip that we were going to their Granny's last week, and ever since they have been going crazy!! I usually don't tell them anything we are going to do that is exciting until the day of, and this is why. Avery has been crying for her Granny for days now, and Benjamin is all ancy, too. I know this is part of the reason for the acting out, but good grief!! So I was making my bed and I hear Miss Thing jumping on hers. She knows she isn't supposed to. We talk about it all the time because she asks to all the time. I go in and pop her on the bottom for it and as expected she falls apart. She cries for a few minutes and then a minute ago she came out of her room with a baby doll and the doll was 'telling' her that she got a spanking from her teacher for jumping on her bed. Avery asked if she was okay, and the 'doll' said "yeah, she's just trying to keep me safe". That made me feel really good that they know I am really just trying to do that and I'm not spanking them out of anger or anything. It was sweet. But it's only 5:00, we have 3 more hours of wild craziness to go.