Too close, too close.

Last night to celebrate the end of the kids' vacation all the grown ups stayed up until midnight watching TV movies. I was stuck on Lifetime, which I haven't indulged in since I worked at the hotel at the beginning of last year. T suddenly remembered that we have an Oreo ice cream cake in the basement freezer, in honor of her birthday.

So, naturally we gorged ourselves and went to bed.

On the way to the kitchen after all our movies ended E asked me what I was doing up so late when I had work in the morning. He promised to send the kids right to me first thing.

"Oh, didn't T tell you? I'm off tomorrow."

She and I had just gone over the month and discussed my days off. She knew perfectly well that I was working today, but I guess because of the hour and the sugar her mind blanked because she ran to the calender in panic.

I laughed at her and told them I'd be here and not to worry. I also told them I am going to start writing whatever I want on the calender.

This morning we took one look at each other and laughed. We all looked like we had been at a frat party gone wrong. Or right, depending on how you look at it. E left for work and T and I quickly consented to chocolate sandwiches for breakfast, something we have done a lot over break and that we are really regretting these days.

But hey, it was our vacation too.

Now that it's over, of course I am wondering where it went. Once the house was quiet I got some serious cleaning done. My beautiful cordless vacuum, the one I just got, my new shining joy, stopped working properly and is dead to me. T used her power of returning things at Bed, Bath & Beyond (according to their policy you can return any product at any time, it's their problem, not mine) to secure us a new cordless vac after several interim weeks of not cleaning the floors.

The new one is ok I guess but it's just not the same thing...

Isn't that sad?

Here's another sad thing. R's little potty issue has spread to J, the good one.

I threatened her with potty training and time outs and she magically recovered from her forgetfulness and has been using the potty faithfully. J stopped having trouble over night and has been 100% diaper free for well over a month.

The other day he pooped in his pants (I believe you know about that) and in the last few days he has had several pee accidents, after which he smiles broadly and informs us that his pants are wet.

Last night I put him in a diaper and his mom took all his underwear. He didn't seem to mind.

This morning his diaper was dry and he was fine all day at school. I asked him if he had to potty as soon as he walked in the door after school and he said no. Here we are less than two hours later and he has had an accident.

Well, I don't know how accidental it is.

I put him in a diaper again and he is in time out for the next few minutes. Not 3 for his age, because if I gave him a 3 minute time out he wouldn't even notice, but enough minutes for him to get bored. Ugh. Supernanny.

Tonight has a lot of promise.

It is leftover night since T and E are gone for dinner. T had several appointments in the city today and even though E's office is local now I think he is in the city today as well.

Usually the days when they are gone all day long go pretty smoothly because the kids don't have multiple people to swindle into doing their bidding. And since the last two times I had them all day were so completely disastrous, I figure tonight either has to be better...or it can't get much worse.

Either way, they'll be in bed by 8 o'clock.

Now, I need to go back to policing the playroom for children standing directly in front of the TV. It's one of my favorite past times.