Blues Brothers

Without a Net

Things I didn't do this morning:

* Eat breakfast

* Read a newspaper, magazine, or back of any cereal boxes

* Wipe up the congealed combination of syrup, milk and banana currently coating our dining table

* Fold the increasingly-wrinkled laundry that's been in a basket for I don't even know how many days

* Put on eye-shadow (though I did manage dabs of lipstick and mascara)

What I did do this morning:

* Got both boys up, changes, fed, relatively clean, dressed, teeth brushed, with lunch boxes in hand, ready for hubby to walk them to school

* Read four books with the boys, including"Mr Rush" (of which the irony was lost on my children)

* Made it, showered, lipsticked, and high-heeled onto a subway by 9 a.m., with a banana in my bag

Actually, the above is a bit of a misrepresentation. The boys are the ones who woke ME up, shouting "RE-BEC-CA, OP-EN THE DOOR!" whilst jumping up and down in their cribs. And hubby won the jackpot, changing the poopy guy while I just had to wrestle with his brother to change the remnants of last night's milk.

So, why was this morning noteworthy? Because, for the first time, we are child-care free. No more nanny. No more au pair. No one living in our apartment that doesn't have the same last name.

See, the boys started day-care, and they are loving it. So much, they actually refuse to leave with alarming regularity. And it just didn't make sense to have an au pair living with us, if she only has to work an hour or so a day. And now I get to have a home office. And we save money. And other people do it, every day. They get up, get their kids up, get their kids to school, get themselves to work, leave work, pick up their kids, and get ready to do the same thing the very next day.

I'm sure it will get harder. We'll forget things, like packing lunch the night before. The exceptions will hit - hubby and I will both have early meetings on a day when one boy wakes up with a fever of 103.

But there's no denying hubby and I got off to a great start. Perhaps the most important evidence to support that claim: we made it through without a single argument.

To top everything off, I found a seat on the subway - a gift of 30 extra mins. to be used however I see fit. To be used, for example, to facilitate writing a blog entry, even on my first day without a net.