Today started out the same as always- the baby wakes up at about 5:30, I nurse her in bed to try to get an extra hour or so of sleep, then I get up and get ready while she plays on the floor nearby-- she has separation anxiety and just wails if, say, I shut the door to the bathroom...

Anyway, while Josie and I do our little routine, Kate is supposed to be getting herself ready and out the door- by 7 am... She's always been super-independent in the morning, and she and I just will get into a squabble of some kind if I try to talk to her in the morning, so this is our system which works MOST of the time...

Today, of course, it didn't work... After getting the rest of the kids up, downstairs to breakfast, and lunches packed, Kate walks upstairs to the kitchen still half-asleep... She *slept through her alarms*, again...

So, she had 10 minutest till I was out the door, we dropped off the twins, then drove through about a million school zones and bus stops and traffic lights to get her to her school, then Luke to his preschool, and 90 minutes later Josie and I roll back home...

I put her to her nap, she woke up right away, and so I said, forget it, went in, held her for about 5 minutes, put her down to CIO a little, and then so that I didn't have to listen, I took a shower. That's a rare treat-- usually I do nonstop chores... But on a day like today, a shower was in order!

And when I got out of the shower, Josie had fallen asleep!!! It's been 1 hour, so success! Maybe CIO might work for us, after all...



I feel *so* much better having had my shower though... It's the simple things... A shower and a caraffe of coffee-- that's what keeps me going...