Things That Happened

* The kids got sick. D3 spent ALL DAY screaming one day, even though she only had a mild fever and no other symptoms. Being half-asleep or half-sick transforms her into this Prima Donna Zombie that cannot be reasoned with, disciplined, cajoled or consoled. Whatever she asks for, she'll scream if she gets it. And she'll scream if she doesn't. It was a long day. I finally put her to bed, sent the other kids to play in the basement, and spent several minutes ripping boxes into shreds until I'd relieved some of the tension.

* DOB surprised me with a trip out of town overnight. Fortunately the kids were recovered enough not to excessively terrorize Their Majesties. It was the first time since our honeymoon that we've been anywhere alone with no work or political activities to attend, and it lasted nearly as long as our honeymoon. It was fabulous. We should probably go on a real honeymoon sometime.

* We came back and the kids were better, except for D4 who kept complaining of stomach pain. Naturally it all got glossed over until he kept waking up in the middle of the night screaming, so we took him to the ER (Wondergirl kindly came and slept on the couch for us) in the middle of the night. Fortunately it was nothing serious, so we took him home and fed him prunes. We're still trying to catch up on sleep.

* His Majesty came and turned the kids' beds back into bunk beds. There's a lot more room in their bedroom now, and the thrill of climbing on new furniture arrangements has kept them very occupied for the past couple of days.

* Inspired by the furniture rearrangement and uninspired by the lack of sleep, I canceled school for the rest of the week and went on a cleaning rampage, with less emotional trauma than is usually present. (The housecleaning advice people never mention what to do about children who are convinced you hate them if you rearrange their special arrangements of random items everywhere.) It went better than it has in the past. Now I need to get up and finish.