not well-oiled at ALL

This morning Cook and Skipper got up at 5:45. Cook fed Skipper and himself, made coffee, and took a shower. Dutch and I got up at 6:15. Cook left for work at 6:35. I fed both kids* and myself, packed lunch for myself and Dutch, washed out Skipper's bucket (which we use to bring home her soiled training pants from daycare every night), washed dishes, took a shower, got dressed, brushed everyone's teeth, and did some other stuff I can't remember. We left the house at 8:15 and dropped Skipper off at daycare at 8:30. I dropped Dutch at her classroom at 8:45 (just as the late bell rang!) and went to my bus stop. I arrived at work at 9:30.

I worked until 4. I got off the bus at 4:52, and walked to the house of Dutch's friend Spruce, where the new babysitter was babysitting Dutch and Spruce. I cajoled Dutch into leaving (this took a while) and we walked home, arriving at about 5:30. When we got home, Skipper and Cook were already there - Cook had picked up Skipper from daycare at 4:30 and started cooking dinner (while toting Skipper on his hip most of the time, which is really pretty impressive) on arrival. I washed out today's training pants and rinsed out the bucket, got together a batch of laundry, took Dutch and Skipper to the basement to get the laundry going, emptied Dutch's backpack and sorted out all the random sad handouts for recycling and the information from the school for response or noting on the calendar. I entertained a very tired Skipper while Cook finished up dinner. We ate dinner (Skipper whining and crying and insisting on sitting in a lap instead of her chair) while Dutch told long confusing stories about her day. Cook and I managed to sneak in a few short conversations, often with long breaks in the middle. We finished dinner.

Cook took Skipper straight off to the bedroom to put her to sleep. I sat down to write this while Dutch sits on the couch reading to herself (and asking me to help her with a word about every 72 seconds). In a few minutes, I'll start ushering Dutch through her bedtime routine, and I expect to be done at about 7:30. Then I'll wash the lunch and dinner dishes, if Cook hasn't done them already. Cook and I will fetch and hang the laundry, wipe the counters, and tidy up as much junk as we can muster energy for. We should be done with all this by 8:30ish, and I will be so tired my eyeballs will be wobbling.

That's the news.

*Skipper likes to eat two breakfasts.