Mr. Mom -- Day #1

Today was the first day of my sixteen day stint as the primary caregiver for the three littles (Thomas - 5, Candace - 7, Sarah - 7). Of course, I'm still on call for the bigs, too (Kenneth - 22, Emily - 21, and Anna - 17), but they're generally pretty self-sufficient.

So today was still not full prime time, if for no other reason than Paula didn't leave for the airport until a little after 10am. As a result, I escaped the early morning routine -- or at least the part of it I usually don't -- particularly the dreaded HAIR.

For those who don't have little girls, particularly little girls with beautiful, but very wavy hair, repairing the "frizz" in their hairdo is a daily task. Paula normally takes care of this, and I've only been called upon a few times to handle it on my own. I'm slow and not nearly as neat as she is. I know this. I'm just hoping to elevate my game from a C- to a B while she's gone. Tomorrow morning is the first test.

Otherwise, things went pretty well today. Sent Paula off on her plane (she called from DC tonight -- the long flight is tomorrow). I managed to make a quick run to Target on the way home with "Tim-Tam-Tommy" (I kid you not, he wants to be called that).

When the girls came home, they had an hour to play, then I spent 30 minutes with them on homework. Then it was dinner -- I made hamburgers and baked beans. After dinner, the kids picked up a corner (about 1/6th) of their room. Then we all watched two old episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess. The littles love this show (I think its the cartoonish fight scenes).

The only challenge came at bedtime -- the twins decided to fight of which side of the bed they got to sit on for storytime, which resulted in a suspension of the story and a slightly earlier evening. Not too traumatic.

Wednesday is a bigger challenge -- Thomas has school, and in the evening we have CCD for all the littles, which backs up bedtime. And I absolutely have to start working on the taxes sooner or later!

Wish me luck!