What just happened?

Today was a whole slew of crazy.

We all got up on time which is a marked improvement over yesterday. The kids and their parents all got out of here on time and Baby I and I packed up and went to his last Toy Time class at the library.

Toy Time is a wonderful hour where 20 babies under 17 months old crawl all over each other and cry. And the parents ignore them and I text. It's glorious. The poor librarian who "leads" the "class" stands up front waving puppets around and singing along to some lame CD and the babies just run wild.

I love it because they immediately fall asleep when it's over.

After school yesterday I was so bored and tired I had to drink coffee to keep from falling asleep while R and J played.

Today T dropped J off with his two wild cousins (T's sister's kids) and her sister promised to be back in an hour.

An hour later, my playroom looked like a garbage dump and smelled pretty similar to one as well. Our young guests had eaten every snack in the house and still wanted more and T's mom had arrived and was scared to leave me with all 5 kids. I'm not sure what time she got here but at 5:30, three hours after school, she called her daughter to come get her rowdy twins.

Yes, they're twins. I had no idea until about a month ago.

T's sister, who is also a T and so she continues to be referred to as T's sister, has twins who are roughly three years old and a baby girl a little younger than Baby I. The twins are a boy and girl, who I thought were different ages because S, the girl, is relatively well behaved and can communicate a clear thought. J, who actually has the same name as my little J, is like talking to Frankenstein's monster. He gtrunts and cries and waves his arm. He eats like an animal and many of his facial expressions resemble a confused ape.

He dumped out two drawers of toys and a bin of blocks and kept opening the playroom gate repeatedly after I told him to get away from it. I'm getting the feeling that Grandma visits us a lot more often than them, and that she is overwhelmed by cousin J's apparent special needs.

Since it was dinner time when the house finally calmed down and was put back together, I texted T to see what was going on. This week she and E have been going to several prayer and memorial services for the relative who just passed away. T has been working long days and then rushing home to change and eat, meet E and head out to pray.

Tonight she said she was on her way home to cook and then twenty minutes later she texted again to say she was stuck at work and could I make some of the frozen chicken and pasta. We struggled through dinner, during which R and J each received time outs for unrelated infractions.

When it was finally over I rushed them all up to start the bedtime routine.

I have mastered it.

These kids are asleep by 8:30 every night that their parents aren't home.

Every night.

Tonight we were halfway there, I was asleep and J was almost out, when E got home and ruined everything. Then T came in and so I left them all to fend for themselves. The kids were still giggling from the second floor after nine.

But I was off duty.

And T is eternally grateful and deeply sorry for my day.

But she had a rough day too.

And I...am in shock.