It’s 8:30 in the morning. I’m barely awake. John has said he needs a break and left both kids in the room. I’m barely awake because David woke up at 5:00. I took the first shift until 7:15 and went back for my nap.

Nothing would be funny without naps.

For some unknown reason, I decide to tidy my room. Again, you’ve got to know me. My tidying is highly sporadic, so on the floor there are piles of clean clothes, dirty clothes, clean clothes mixed with dirty clothes. There is a path to the closet but barely.

Rose asks to play with my scarves. I say sure. David doesn’t ask; he just pulls the box of t-shirts out from under the bed. Now on top of the clean clothes and the dirty clothes, and the clean and dirty clothes are the silk rainbow scarf, the bright pink Andy Warhol scarf, the whale scarf, flowers, stripes, fringe, glitter, silk, cotton, and then we have the Howl t-shirt, the aikido shirt, the tie-dye, the sleeveless, the one I thought about wearing yesterday, the one I forgot about, and five I really should get rid of. There is no longer a path to the closet.

Rose hops onto my bed to play wedding with her twelve veils. I give up on tidying and go off to take a shower. When I come back I discover David has been in new drawer, one I didn’t think he could open.

John: “Perhaps you should put the unmentionables away before the kids mention them.”

I look more closely. Wise choice. I then do the “there’s nothing behind my back look the other way” dance while tripping over scarves.

Rose: “What are you and Daddy laughing about?”

Lessons of the day: Don’t bother to tidy; the baby is taller and stronger than you ever remember.