I was glad you liked the kids singing. They were so pleased with themselves. And Sam really liked playing his piano into the phone to you. I don’t think that had ever occurred to him before. It was almost like you were here!

Rob got everyone into pajamas tonight by sheer force of personality, since he can’t really manhandle them. I find that as exhausting as just sitting on them and doing it myself. Having him able to do it was a pretty good ending to a long evening–I left dinner on simmer, forgetting that my stove’s simmer is really, really hot, and although the chicken survived the Masala sauce burnt to a crisp. I had to throw some more tomato sauce and spices and chickpeas into a different pot while the kids are all doing their starving act all over the kitchen floor, and then I thought I would boil off the burnt stuff in the big pot, so I turned on the water spigot over the stove to fill it up to where the burnt stuff was…and I got distracted…and I flooded the stove, and I said “Ffff!” (really, I am not censoring myself) and then everyone wanted to know why I said “Ffff.”

So not having to do the pajama/shower thing was a gift. A broken ankle sounds so minor…I think people are like, so? He has a broken ankle? That’s no big deal….and it isn’t, but then, it IS, because it’s not like he can unload the dishwasher or pick up the living room, really. Sux. But he is figuring out what he can do.

Today I took all three to the grocery store. I created a new system. I give Sam and Lily a list–about ten things–and a single cart, and tell them to work together to get the things. It’s worked beautifully twice, it’s helpful, we’re faster and it is so much more relaxing not to have to talk to all three of them while we shop. But today Lily was tired, and wanted to ride in the cart and stay with me, and Wyatt wanted to push a cart and go with Sam. You’re thinking this is going to be the story of how that went wrong, but it’s not–it worked out fine, although when we got to the register I had to explain to him why we were not buying any candy corn, and when we got home I found a bag of dried blueberries (which he loves) which were not on my list. He also filled his cart with the biggest ever box of Goldfish, but that was fine, because we are out anyway (it’s not like I didn’t notice; it literally took up the whole little cart). It’s such a small store, and it was a quiet day–I would have known if he was any trouble. I hope we can go back to plan A, though, because it’s more relaxing than worrying about what Wyatt is doing, and he’s not going to be able to go with Sam when the store is crowded. Just when I thought I’d made the grocery store pleasant again! Sam does pretty well at finding the right brands and things. Next I will teach him how to compare prices and choose strawberries. Soon I’ll just be sitting up front, thumbing through a magazine…

I think they behave better in public when they aren’t with me.

i hope your birthday books are good, Mom, and that it’s good not to get any “things” you have to move. I don’t want any “things” that I have to clean, myself (which reminds me, thank you for the paper plates! What a good “gift”. I know you found them while you were cleaning stuff out, but we will definitely use them.)

The Spooky Trail must go on, so I am off to send an email to just the friends who came last year. I had thought we might expand, even talked to Sam about inviting his class, but without Rob I can’t do it. Sam was nice about it. I told him I had some bad news about halloween, and he thought I meant we weren’t trick-or-treating, so he was actually relieved.