4:20 Mommy! Mommy! Mommmmy! David does not sound grumpy or in pain. He sounds obnoxiously wide awake at what I consider the middle of the night. I nudge John and he agrees to take this shift, but David doesn't. So, I start the resettling routine: a little nursing, a little snuggling, a lot more snuggling, a story while we snuggle, and finally David in the crib and me on the floor.

5:15 Neither David nor I are asleep, so I pass off to John. Nope, David is not interested in Daddy. No, no, Daddy. It finally occurs to me to shove some Tylenol into him, and he finally agrees to sleep in our bed where, by some miracle, we all go back to sleep until 7:15. It's a rough sleep, but it counts for something.

7:30 We are all awake running through morning routine. John covers the kids' breakfast. I field questions about why I have put strawberries in my cereal.

Why strawberries Mommy?
Because I like them.
Why like them?

Somehow John and I both get showers, we get David dressed, and I pack up snack, lunch, and the materials for Rose's birthday circle. Then, since it is pouring, we pick up my sister and nieces and drive to school.

9:15 Rose's birthday circle. Since Rose's birthday is in August, she gets to have her school party now. It's a very sweet ritual.

10:15 David and I have dropped my sister and one niece off at their house, Daddy off at our house, driven to the Children's Museum, and found good inexpensive parking. And, I've shoved more teething tablets into him. I'm seeing a definite relationship between the tablets and the reduction in whining and clinging.

10:30 We have a good time in the Children's Museum. The week's trip features clay, driving the fire engine and making sure to slow down at the yellow light and stop on the red, a trip to the shopping store including a stint as the cashier, and a bit of grabbing in the ball room.

12:00 We both eat our lunch in the car on the way home, but I am really ready for a break and I know David won't nap. Have I mentioned David has given up on his nap? More on that in another entry. I get him upstairs, change his second poopy diaper of the day, and what to our wondering ears do we hear, but Daddy! John usually works on campus Tuesday, but he came home specifically to give me a break. Seriously nice.

12:30 I take an hour to nap and write. Then I do a load of laundry, take out the garbage, take out the recycling, take out the yard waste, and tidy. All this is much easier than John's job cooking brownies with David's "help."

2:00 In the intricate web that is our family support, Ariana has spent the morning at her grandparents' house because it is their special morning with her and my sister has been at a three hour meeting. My sister is one of those high powered volunteers who sits on boards and allocates money. The grandparents needed to leave before my sister would be back, so Ariana came to us. This is great because David and Ariana together are much easier than David alone.

They play the harmonica. I tidy. They drive the fire engine and the race car. I tidy.

2:40 Because it is still pouring, Julia offers to take the gang to swim class without me. When the weather is nice, David, I and rotating girls play in the park while Julia manages the changing and showers. When the weather is like today, David drives me insane in the community center, so this is a very nice offer. Then David cooks hot things in his kitchen while my only job is to pretend to touch the pot.

3:15 David and I set out on our adventures. I drop off a check for my massage therapist (in the past few days I've gotten a massage, gotten my nails done, gone to a Red Sox game, gone to the theater, and gone dancing. I believe in the week long birthday celebration) and hit the library. I pick up books for me—Hume, On Human Understanding which I will never read and translations of Horace which is going to be great; books for David—I Love Trucks and Buzz Lightyear; and books for my sister which look much more readable than mine. Then we play with the lovely puzzles the library provides. We do a great big fire engine and an alphabet train. David says the dinosaurs are scary.

5:00 I walk in the door to John cooking furiously and mom waiting to play with David. Good deal. I hide for 15 minutes.

5:15 The gang arrives. Mom does all the table setting while I get to hear all the news from Rose and feed David a scone.

Dinner is fantastic. I don't even know how to describe the eggplant, just incredible. John makes my favorite Thai chicken dish. It's all delicious even with David freaking out from being overtired. He perks right up after the brownies and ice cream though. The kids have been going crazy to give me my gift because I asked for hot wheels, and they/Julia got me the fancy equivalent.

We have a great time playing with them except they start to break. I'm pretty peeved about that.

7:00 Yes, it is way past David's bedtime. Somehow, John and I manage to get him into jammies and routine without a meltdown. We must have caught that sugar high crest before it crashed.

7:45 The gang leaves and we do Rose's bedtime routine. She's disturbed by the rain pelting down, but I think we are good to go.

8:15 I was considering going dancing, but we've gone three times in the last week. I watch t.v. with John, eat popcorn, and go through my packing list.

10:00 Packing was not the best way to end the day since it's made me all nervous. Good I started tonight though. I can't wait to play with my new loopdeloop car toy tomorrow.