Let's go brush our hands and wash our teeth.

I can still hear little feet running around upstairs, even though after their bedtime routine, I specifically said to stay in bed.

Today, this glorious one-month marker day, I was living the nanny life.

While the family ran in and out of the house all day, I played online, rearranged some China in order to fit more China in the cabinet, played online, and did I mention that I was playing online?

I am looking for a new banana nut muffin recipe, preferably one with less sugar and more healthy nutty goodness. Any suggestions would be wonderful. I am also looking for a sealant for the stupid grout that we have figured out is what is making all of our feet jet black every day.

I have been mopping the floor two or three times a week and Swiffering EVERY day and still, after fifteen minutes without shoes, my feet turn black. My socks turn black. I wore my socks around the house in Africa and didn't have this many stains. It's unbelievable.

And it's the grout, which after some research about houses and tile floors in the era this house was built, we discovered may not have even been black originally. Chances are it was white, and now it is black. And so is everything it touches.

And so my floor will be sealed in the near future. And my new dishwasher is coming. And I am loving making the call on all these things and not having to pay for it.

Although, the other day we were discussing the garden hose that needs repairing or tweaking or replacing and T was insisting that we needed to do these things and E looked from her to me to her and said, "Alright, we can do that but then Kim isn't getting paid that week." So she backed down.

They are a funny pair.

I took the baby, who has yet another tooth breaking gums this week, to the pool and he yelled at me the whole time. He was moody and I was cold, so it lasted all of twenty minutes before I gave up and got us home.

I spent the evening feeding children and ripping CDs to my iTunes account. Having a computer is really growing on me, and of course, as it gets more and more comfortable, I am having more and more problems with the computer.

I let the kids play games on it from time to time, which has ended quite abruptly, because after the last time they played, it took me three tries to get it restarted. I don't know what they did or pressed to anger my poor baby, but that was the end of PBSkids.org, which is a wonderful place for kids to play. I'll shamelessly plug it, I don't care.

Also, www.wegivebooks.org. Everyone read! That site donates books for each book you read. I don't know if I've plugged them before, but I really love it and so do the kids.

That one is still allowed, because they don't touch anything and my computer should be relatively safe.

I say relatively, because I am not much nicer to it than the kids. Last night whilst typing the comma button popped off.

I got it back on with some coaxing and petting and promises to be more gentle. But I'm scared.

It sounds like the horseplay above me has faded out, which means it's time for Nanny Kim to go put the sleeping kids back into their beds for the night.

And for the record, none of them call me Nanny Kim. Everyone calls me Kimmy except R, who insists that my name is Kim. She also got a Couture bag which she calls her "weekend" bag and she carries it around the house on her arm looking much like her mother. She is more sophisticated than the rest of us and so I can't blame her for not stooping to our level and calling me something so silly as "Kimmy."

And of course the baby, who calls me Mama and this morning when he was crying and both T and I went to see him, stood before us looking from one to the other like a lost dog seeking his true owner.

It took him a good 30 seconds to makes his decision, but he made the right decision in the end.

He went to his mother.