2:00 a.m. Rose calls. She has wet her bed. This is unprecedented, but no big deal. Well, it wouldn't be at a decent hour. I can't get my limbs to move, so John throws a blanket down on her bed, tells her to change her jammies, and we'll do sheets in the morning.

5:40 a.m. David calls. I'm afraid he's so excited about his birthday that this will be the start to the day. Nope. He just wants me to sleep with him for two minutes, really, really close. So, I take a side trip to the bathroom, grab my pillow, and get in bed with him where we lie nose to nose. He is asleep in 5 minutes, and I go back to bed where I also manage to fall asleep fast. Sometimes when David wakes me, that's it on my sleep for the night.

7:30 a.m. David calls, "Is it morning!" Yes, and a decent hour as well. We've been rearranging the sleep schedule a lot given the holidays. For awhile, he wasn't getting up until 8:20 which doesn't really work for getting everybody out of the house in the morning. This is good. He comes into to snuggle with me, as he does every morning. And I would like to publicly acknowledge right here and now how lucky I am to have a snuggly, cuddly, kissing child in my life. I should never take all that warmth for granted.

The children don't fight. Usually, before I can drag my body out of bed, David is banging on Rose's door, and Rose is yelling at David. David sits on my lap for another chapter of Peter Pan (the abridged version thank goodness), and Rose intersperses with quotes from the book she's currently reading, Wayside School is Falling Down. John gets breakfast started.

David: cheesy rice, applesauce, red chewy vitamins, water
Rose: cinnamon toast, water, vitamins (color not critical), prune
John: yogurt and granola, vitamins
Debby: oatmeal with brown sugar, carrot juice, vitamins

It's a t.v. day, so the kids eat their breakfast over Arthur.

8:20 Grandpa Jere and Barb call from Cairo. I warn them not to congratulate David on his birthday. David does not like having a birthday. Oh, he likes cake and presents, but he does not want to get older. He refuses to grow up, and he's felt this way long before he learned about Peter Pan. We had the same issue last year. I try to reassure him that he can be as young as he wants and that he will always be my little baby. He suspects I may be lying, and he's still often filled with angst at the thought of aging.

8:45 I tell the kids we need to leave the house now. David starts screaming and crying that he doesn't want his birthday, and he doesn't want to go to school. Rose tells me her Achilles tendon still hurts, now her heel hurts too, and she has that sad feeling. John tells me cheesy rice and applesauce are ground into the carpet. I feel beleaguered.

I tell Rose to brush her hair, to do the stretch the dance teacher suggested for the tendon, and to take deep yoga breaths for the sad feeling. She brushes her hair. I tell John we can clean the carpet and ban David from eating those foods while watching t.v. I ignore David screaming on the couch and pack all his things into the car. Then I carry him into the car offering the 1 to 11 choice ratio--no choice about going, lots of choices about buckling, music, etc.

8:55 We drop Rose off at Aunt Julia's to be walked to school. David and I rather cheerfully drive to his school while he eats a bar. Making sure he gets enough food is key to managing his behavior, not that I've had a lot of success managing his behavior recently, but I've got a better shot with food in him.

9:10 Drop off goes ok. It used to be so smooth, just a kiss at the door. And then I did that going back to work thing, we had vacation, it was all messed up. I stay for the circle time story and then send David to play with the new airplanes. I warn the teachers not to call it David's birthday when they pass out cupcakes.

9:30 I deal with the recycling that wasn't picked up and attempt to write poetry. It's bad, but trying counts.

12:00 I pick up David and he announces that it is, in fact, his birthday, and he is four. Preschool seems to be life changing. Over lunch I read him another chapter of Peter Pan. Then he settles in for the rest of his t.v., and I fail at napping.

1:30 I clean the bathroom; David draws. This is a big deal because all pens have been banned to upper shelves for the last few days. David wrote his name on the couch. Discipline, defiance, bad behavior, wit's end--all topics under heavy discussion in our house. After some cheerful q and a about the rule--can you write on the rug? can you write on the laundry? can you write on green paper--I brought the pens back.

David decides to help with the mopping which will later lead my mom to assume there's been a flood. I manage to get both bathrooms clean, and David, since he's half naked anyway, decides we should take a bath. So, we do.

3:07 I get us out of the bathtub, dressed, snacked, and in the car on time. We drive to Aunt Julia's house and stroll, in the rain, to school. Pick up is cheerful. My sister and I shepherd the four children back to Nolan's house. Where they drop in for an impromptu playdate.

4:00 Rose and I leave David with my sister and the gang and go to the toy store to buy David a birthday present from her. Rose is ecstatic to have Mommy/Rose time. She chats nonstop. The toy store visit goes very well. She picks out a grabber, an extension arm from grabbing things. I get inexplicably really tired, like fall to the floor tired. I try to keep it together while she decorates the free paper they provide.

4:50 It takes the pizza place 45 minutes to deliver, and we eat at 5:30. In other words, I'm already behind. Luckily, Rose wants to make a card and needs no attention. I order gluten free pizza from one place, regular from another, clear the table, set the table, peel the carrots, and reassure my mother, who is already here, that there has not been a flood in the bathroom.

5:40 The pizza is fabulous. Other adults tend to the kids. At one point John has to threaten David with no presents and no dessert if he doesn't stop standing on his chair and flipping his pizza on the floor. Eat the darn thing. Of course, the excitement level is very high, but we manage to make it through all the rituals without anyone freaking out. David gets really good presents—a marble game, a construction zone, the aforementioned grabber—and all the kids starting playing with them. The cake is ok--a g-f mix from a brand we don't usually buy--but the icing is great. I continue to have moments of extreme fatigue and cold. And this is before the sugar low.

7:40 Getting David on the bedtime train is not easy. He and Rose horse around in the stairs until he accidentally bonks her in the nose. We read two more chapters of Peter Pan then he has a temper tantrum. John jollies him into bed, but it still takes me 20 minutes longer to get him down. I am wearing full clothes plus bathrobe, hat, scarf, and two pairs of socks. I told you I was cold.

8:55 I take a long hot bath and read a really scary murder mystery.

10:40 No longer cold, no longer exhausted, but a little freaked out by the really scary murder mystery. Time for bed.