Yesterday continued at break neck pace with ice skating, an impromptu playdate with the neighbors, a scheduled playdate with a girl from school, and a shopping trip. Once again I missed my nap and had not a minute off.

This is a little bit because I overscheduled but really because I did a mitzvah.

I got home at 12:15 with great plans to feed the kids and then plop them in front of the t.v. for half an hour while I took my nap. But as I drove up the across-the-street neighbor greeted me rather frantically from her front porch. She was still in her jammies, her son was half dressed, and I could tell she had hit her limit. We often trade our same age sons back and forth, but this time I took her 9 month old baby too.

Rose was in heaven. She gobbled her lunch and devoted all her attention to the baby. Did I know the baby liked to suck on the pink pig's nose? Why was the baby's face turning red? The baby makes clicking noises! The baby is easy going, can sit, and can't crawl. A perfect house guest.

Rose decided she wanted to skip t.v. and just fawn over the baby, so I put the two of them in the hall next to my bedroom, put the boys in front of the t.v. and pretended I was getting a nap. The boys bouncing off the sofa and Rose reporting the baby's every move made this a tad unrealistic.

Then I managed to get everyone out the door, returned the baby, dropped Rose off at her playdate, and took the boys shopping. It was no harder than just shopping with David, really. They pushed their own carts very quickly. They fought over who got the apples in their cart and who got the eggplant. They tipped their carts over twice. No one freaked, including me; we had a great time.

Then I dropped the friend off, put away the groceries, and rushed off to join Rose's playdate where I sank into the couch and drank tea. The other mother was quite intrigued that I let David go play off in the backyard by himself. If David is willing to play by himself in a within yelling distance, fenced in back yard, who am I to say no? Though I didn't really get to veg. By this point, Rose needed a lot of attention.

Of course, Rose crashed at the end of the day.

Today was at about half that speed. We went to jazzercise with Miriam and met my friend and her daughter there. Then we had lunch back home with everyone. So, ok, all that took lots of organizing, managing, and food prep. But then all the guests left, and Rose read David a book while I really did get my nap. Then the three of us went to the local coffee shop and had g-f cookies and read their books for an hour. We came home and played the clean the house penny game. If you've read All of a Kind Family, you know what I'm talking about. In that book about a Jewish family in 1890's in the Lower East Side, Mama is having trouble motivating the kids to do a good job dusting the front room, so she hides pennies, and the children dust very well to find the pennies. Rose wanted me to hide pennies, but I thought poker chips would be easier. She had a great time putting away all the toys and hunting for poker chips. The house went from complete wreck to a few clear surfaces.

Then John came home, and I made dinner. Really, me.