The ships-in-the-night thing

Today Chad comes home, and I take off, and thank goodness we at least have a couple hours of overlap because we need to switch vehicles. I thought I would get a few things crossed off my list with Chad away but of course that was just naivite. I did drag the kids out on a skates-and-helmet shopping trip for Liam, during which he actually had red skates on his feet and decided he didn't want them anymore. Truthfully, I think he felt how wobbly the skates were and decided he wanted out of this whole skating business, period. He stopped to admire a Diego hockey stick and now I am trying to keep him pumped for skating by agreeing that once he learns how to skate, he can get the Diego stick to play hockey with (his idea, but one I will go along with!) In the end I got lazy and bought Liam some adjustable skates that cover a range of sizes by way of a sliding toe piece. He was not terribly cooperative when it came to trying things on in the store, and it seemed like a good we'll-figure-it-out-at-home solution.

Once at home, my best-laid-plans of having dinner started for Chad and the kids tonight and their clothes set out for the next few days fell by the wayside. Liam was late getting into bed and once he did he said, "It's wet in here!" Yep, he picked night-before-last to wet his bed for the first time, and then conveniently failed to tell me about it or give me enough warning to get his bedding and pajamas washed. Wouldn't have been such a big deal except that all the spare bedding is still packed away somewhere in the basement, and I was not in the mood to set out to find it. So he slept with the old quilt that used to be on our bed, and used our old bedskirt as a bottom sheet, and slept in stinky pee-stained pajamas (which had dried, but definitely smelled, yet he refused to take them off). So I had some laundry to do last night, and his bed to remake this morning.

And then when Mallory woke up, her bed and pajamas were soaking wet - like a conspiracy, it was!! More bed-stripping, more laundry. Such is life.

Tonight, though, this will all be Chad's problem, and he can deal with their bedtime requests for drinks of milk and Mallory's refusal to have her teeth brushed and Liam's insistance for just one more story. I will be at the Sheraton, peacefully dreaming in one of their Sweet Sleeper beds... and missing the chaos like crazy.

(We installed a cat door leading down to the basement, so Captain can access the litter box while preventing Mallory from plunging to her death... and she is awfully curious about what goes on behind that door!)