I have the patience of a 2 yr old lately, and we all know what they're like.

DCG, 18mo. She's started smacking everyone. She can't get within touching distance before smacking them. She's a little delayed in most areas, and I think of her as more of a 12mo. Time outs aren't appropriate, so I just pick her up and remove her, but it's constant. I can't do anything else without her crawling up to someone and hitting them. She also constantly gets in to everything she shouldn't. She doesn't know how to play with toys yet, so she just wrecks them.

DCG #2, 18mo. She's been with me for 3 months, and is just pretty constantly miserable. She's upset or she cries more than half the time she's here. She doesn't like me, I'm sure of it. When she is upset about something legitimate, she doesn't want me to comfort her. I really like her, but I'm finding it really hard to keep my spirits up about her.

DCB, 2. He doesn't speak. He says maybe 5 words: mama, bye, uh oh and all done. He doesn't even repeat after me. I'll ask him to say red, and he'll say doooooo. Mom hasn't mentioned anything, and I'm not sure if it's my place to ask her if she's considering EI or any kind of speech therapy.

DCB, 3.5. His parents are the issue here. They're schedule is all over the place and it's constantly changing. They are driving me up the wall. THey're neighbors also, and DCB is best friends with my son. They're leaving in the fall so I'll put up with it, but it's so irritating.

I feel like all I do all day is say "no", "don't", "stop". I'm more than likely closing in the fall. Both my kids will be in school full time. I want my house back. I want my life to be bigger than my house and whatever is in walking distance. But I don't know if I can wait until then. My heart just isn't in to it lately, and I feel like I'm failing these kids.