some vague hour in the middle of the night: David comes into our room wanting something. John takes the gig, and I go back to sleep. This is not totally out of the blue, he's wandered in before in the middle of the night, but since getting his big boy bed, he's basically been going to sleep beautifully and sleeping through the night. One caveat—going to sleep beautifully for us. We left him to Sally the other night, and there was screaming until 9:30. Oof.

6:45 David calls. I take all the gigs past 6, so I am on. After some batting of a balloon around his room, I convince him to go downstairs. It's always a struggle to get him downstairs where we won't wake up John or Rose but to do so without making a lot of noise in which we wake up John and Rose.

We play with a balloon (his choice), make and eat oatmeal (my choice), do a puzzle of the world (his choice), unload the dishwasher together (my choice), make Rose's lunch together (my choice), wake up Daddy (both our choice).

7:52 I hand off to John and go back to sleep. Usually, the hand off happens at 7:30, and I almost never actually wake up John. Obviously, the night took its toll.

8:10 Chaos reigns. David refuses to get his poopy diaper changed. Rose refuses to get out of bed and get dressed. John needs to shower, and all three of them need to leave the house by 8:30. Luckily, an electronic birthday card has arrived from Noemi and Darrel, so I tell the children they can look at it after every one is wiped and dressed. They move rapidly.

8:25 I move very rapidly zapping the banana chocolate chip muffin, making the cinnamon toast, finding Rose's prune and vitamin. Everyone only eats a few bites before they have to leave but that's what to-go plates are for.

We give David his first present of the day—the big boy booster seat. He seems a bit dumbstruck, like he's not sure what to make of it. Then he starts jumping up and down with excitement. Getting him into the car is absolutely not a problem today.

8:40 I shower, start the laundry, write a teeny bit, call doctors. . . I don't know how anyone works, has a life, and runs a life. I always seem to be sacrificing writing time to making to-do lists.

9:40 I head off to volunteer at Rose's school. This is my first time. It's their writer's workshop celebration day. They've all written a story, focusing on small moments, using details, using more interesting tag lines then "said" (though I could argue that point), and having an opening and closing. My job is to lead my small group of eight as each one reads their story and then everyone writes a compliment.

It feels like work, and I mean that in the best possible way. I loved my work as a writing teacher and leading small groups, honoring people's writing, and teaching them how to give supportive and specific critiques was a major part of my job. I can't wait to do it again.

11:00 I drive to the doctor's to pick up paperwork and the bank to deposit some. There goes my entire time off.

11:40 John is exhausted. David is hyper, but luckily he wants the pasta and corn John has made. I get myself lunch, change David's pull-up, eat some lunch, get David more pasta, eat some lunch, wipe David's face off, eat some lunch, get David some dessert, eat some lunch, refuse to get David more dessert, finish my lunch, and read David a story.

1:10 I announce I'm taking a nap. My biorhythms are set up so I literally fall asleep on my feet at this time every day. Just a twenty minute nap gets me through the day and yesterday David let me have it, though his snuggling with me that made the bed bounce was a bit crazy making. Today, I remind John that David still has an hour of t.v. he could watch.

1:50 I emerge having slept hard and miracle of miracles, David has only just started watching t.v. He spent most of the time self amusing with his trains. Granted, he has a lot of new trains from all the recent celebrations, but still. Woohoo! Now, I have a dilemma. My friend Deirdre has a rule, "In your time off, never do something that you could do with a child." I think this is an excellent rule. I try to use my time off for writing and massages. But here I am cleaning the house instead.

2:15 David reaches a stopping point with the t.v. We do the laundry and clean the bathroom. See, double-dipping, I do childcare and clean the house, much better.

2:55 We are late leaving the house to pick up Rose. Normally, we drive to my sister's, walk with her and Ariana, but Ariana is at Mommom's house, and Miriam is going to a play date, so we drive all the way. I get very very grumpy trying to buckle in the new car seat. I was sure the new seat would end my back problems, but I find myself leaning over and holding an awkward position as I struggle to find the right buckle. I'm planning to have Rose do most of the buckling.

3:30 I begrudgingly let Rose spend 15 minutes on homework just because she really wants to. David and I clean up all the cooking toys, cleaning toys, and random balls that he dumped on the floor this morning. By the way, I had already cleaned them all up last night from the previous dumping. Then I set up Rose to clean the upstairs bathroom, and David throws balls around the room while I sweep and mop the downstairs.

4:30 I lie down on the couch while Rose and David color in another room, another room being the key element.

4:40 Mom and Ariana show up. Things start out mellow and get progressively more and more hyper. It's all fun and games until someone gets a mop thrown at their head.

5:00 We divert the energy with some presents. All the kids play with the new roundhouse for the trains while I set the table.

5:35 The first five minutes of dinner are a race to get the food served before someone starts complaining. (Did I mention we have seven adults and four children in attendance?) Then we settle in for John's delicious oven baked chicken.

Everything goes pretty smoothly after this, hyper, but smooth. Rose wants to "help" David with all his presents. David wants to play with all his presents simultaneously. We cajole him upstairs with the last present of the night, a bath toy.

6:50 David and I take a bath. John and I manage to cajole him out of the bath. Then John does bedtime routine and I hang out with the company and read to Rose.

8:00 I'm done for the evening. I get to watch t.v., make more to-do lists, and

9:00 I'm not done for the evening. Rose can't sleep. She keeps having bad thoughts. Rose and sleep is a long annoying story that I'm not going into right now. I agree to tell her one story about myself as a kid. I am really really done. I go to my room with a big pile to do and don't do it.