I'm trying to plan our Paris itinerary and getting overwhelmed by all the variables: weather, fatigue, distance from park, distance from bathroom, amusing to four year olds, distance from the metro, amusing to a 1 year old, distance from ice cream, etc. My father-in-law asked how much we did in a normal day now, and suggested we plan that much activity.

5:55 David wakes up. We nurse. Then he has some serious waking up is hard to do which I haul him downstairs for so he won't bother Rose and John. Eventually, I get breakfast into him and me, Rose and John emerge, and I go back upstairs for my morning nap.

8:25 I hear Rose having fits about wanting Mommy. She finds me in the shower, and we agree on two stories before school. I also manage to shove some cheese into her.

9:00 David, Rose, and I go to school. David does not want to put Rose's lunchbox in the fridge. He does not want to get back in the car. As I drive home I keep glancing in the rear view mirror to see if he's asleep. Instead of seeing his reflection, I see a ghost image. His head seems to hover before me. I drive an extra mile, and he's down.

9:45 I successfully transfer him to his crib. I sign up for dance class, talk to my sister, edit a book (new job!), and lie down for a few minutes.

11:45 A friend was aghast that I serve David beans straight out of the can. I'm thinking easy and nutritious, plus he likes them. The doctor suggested I just drizzle a little olive oil, keep up his good weight gain. I use the beautiful glass pitcher Nancy gave us. David takes one bite and signs more, more, more. Why does it take us another hour to get out of the house? David throws his food on the floor. There's so much sweet potato stuck to his body I have to rinse the cloth three times. We also have a diaper change.

1:15 We drive to the travel bookstore, manage to find parking on a crowded street, manage to get out of the car seat without getting hit on the crowded street, and get to the store. That's where my luck runs out. David is done with being held. He just wants to pull all the books off the shelf.

2:00 We go to my friend Kate's house. David shakes the fishing pole at her kitties. He tries on all her Mardi Gras necklaces—purple is especially good on him. He doesn't pull any books off her shelves.

2:30 We stroll from Kate's to the park. Lots of digging in the sand.

3:00 Not too happy getting back in the stroller, not too happy getting back in the car seat. I'm just hoping David falls asleep on the way or John is home early, so I can take a nap. Neither happen.

3:15 David loves to pick flowers. He caresses the lamb's ear between his fingers. He offers me the golden dandelion heads. He can be distracted from a fit with an all white daffodil. We do all this as well as travels up and down the sidewalk and the stairs. Eventually, I get to go inside and scramble around the piles of dirty dishes.

3:45 John walks in and takes over. I lie down.

4:15 David and I go to school. Usually, this is a total win. David loves playing at school, the other kids love playing with David, and Rose happily ignores me until outside time is over. But today, she has specifically asked that I watch her hang from the monkey bars. So, I've got one eye on David in the sand pit while I say, "Wow, honey, you are so strong."

Then things get totally insane. I let David climb onto the jungle gym. I stand in front of the open side, but there's a corrugated tunnel, and when he emerges, there's a wall between him and me that I can barely reach other and a big open drop off on the other side. There is also no way for me to quickly change sides. David crawls back and forth, grinning like crazy. Four other children crawl around and paw at him. I ask Rose to block the open side, to which she happily agrees, but she's four, so I hop back and forth between tunnel ends, frantic.

5:05 John and I agree on take out Vietnamese, but the plan stalls. David decides to nurse. Rose reminds me I promised to watch Dragonlands with her.

6:00 John feeds the kids. I pick up dinner. Over our dinner, Rose fills in her new muscular dystrophy coloring book, John reads Harper's, and I read a profile in The New Yorker about a man who dresses teens so they look like punk rockers. As I eat my noodles, I reassess the pink and black in my wardrobe. We have a family rule that it's ok to read over breakfast and lunch, but not dinner. Neither of us care tonight.

6:30 I change David's diaper and he freaks out for twenty minutes. He is obviously exhausted and it takes John literally juggling to calm him down.

7:00 David and I have a lovely bath together. John and Rose play downstairs.

8:15 We start Rose's bedtime routine. She wants Daddy to read Wind in the Willows, so I get dish duty.

9:00 We had planned to go dancing tonight. I'm so tired I can barely move. John and I watch t.v., and I do a little work.


What did we do today?

We got in and out of the car seat fourteen times, many of them with great resistance. We dug in the sand three different places. We visited one store unsuccessfully. Now I've got to plan a trip to Paris with those parameters.