Dan had the house looking totally spotless for me when I heaved the kids across the doorstep. He didn't get to go to Florida with us because of his job - he had to go to New Orleans instead. So, it was awesome that things were totally picked up, and I felt so relieved.

He's still not back, so he wasn't here when I dumped the contents of both suitcases in the foyer and scattered chew toys all over Mac's room. He also hasn't seen the four spatulas and two dishtowels on the kitchen floor - things I threw at the baby to keep him busy while I made some dinner for Shef and me.

And he hasn't seen the particles of food on our new brown area rug.

Part of the problem is that Mac has suddenly become such a tricky baby. He's teething hard, he pulls up on everything, he won't be put down for even two minutes (I'm holding him right this second, and thank God - THANK GOD - he's asleep).

Another problem is that Shef was a little exhausted after the trip, and after I told him I couldn't play Uno with him last night due to the circumstances described above, he came downstairs and promptly crossed out my contributions to the works in his sketchbook.

"I'm crossing out all your drawings," he told me matter-of-factly.

Then, when I failed to freak out about that, he told me our new area rug was ugly.

Humph.

It's totally not ugly. That's the bright side.