Relax: BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!

Grandma Seattle visited this weekend (she is still here) and because she is incredibly generous, she gave K and I a twenty-four hour pass - our first ever twenty-four hour pass since The Mayor was born.

Aside from individual business trips, Saturday night was the first time that we spent a night together AWAY from the children since the year 2004.

The year two thousand and FOUR.

We booked a hotel with a gynormous bed, went out on a date and despite not yet owning a National Park Ranger uniform, were able to... er... enjoy each other's company! (Heh. Bow Chicka!)

To top it all off, we slept in.

Oh, yes. Slept in, ahhhhhh.

There was peace in our land, we found nirvana and exploded into a billion particles of light and air.

But then we had to go back home.

We arrived in time to take the children to a birthday party for a friend of The Mayor's turning three.

At the party, a different childrens CD blared from each room.

There was a puppet show -- and several three year olds lobbing rubber balls through the curtain at the head of the puppeteer.

There was a sand box - and a great throwing of sand.

There was ketchup. Everywhere. On little hands... and then on my jacket.

There were 5 three year olds playing an adult drum kit in a very tiny room so that you could feel the BOOM, BOOM, BOOM in your spine.

Our departure from the party was a combination of tears and dum dum lollipop stickiness.

Leaving only the bedtime routine - a bumpy ride at best.

The two of them wore me down to a nubbin in just four short hours.

I am a nubbin.

And still, I am happy to see them.