Today was a fine day, up until about 3:30pm. It was then that I picked up Anna from school, where she was immediately upset and whining that I would not carry her 40 lbs., the 20 lb baby in a car seat, and her bucket o’ stuff, while signing her out and opening doors. This led to outright shrieking on the way home that she did not give a goodbye hug to Mrs. G. on the way out, on account of her being busy whining as she walked right by her. At home, she whined for approximately 157 years, while I demanded that she settle herself down and use her big girl voice to ask for something specific. By the time she settled down and asked to sit in my lap and read a story, the other child decided to imitate her big sister and began crying. Tara generally cries only because she is either hungry or tired, or in this case, both.

At some point I must have had them both settled down enough to start dinner, and get to a critical point in the dinner making such that both girls decided to demand attention at the same time, again. It was then that I called Jen to confirm that she would indeed be home late again. By the time she arrived I was desperately in need of someone to take both girls away while I finished dinner, so that I could get it ready in time to get it on the table, so that Anna could begin refusing to eat it and I could placate Anna rather than eating it myself, while Jen went upstairs to feed Tara until the remains of dinner were sufficiently cold.

Having not napped today, Anna continued her bad behavior while Jen put Tara down to sleep. Later, at the point at which I was almost done getting Anna ready for bed and several milliseconds after Jen left the house to go play soccer, Tara decided she was very unhappy, and cried loudly for the next 20 minutes while I bounced from one bedroom to the other. Now, at 8pm, both girls are asleep, alive, and unmaimed. Where’s my award?