Heavy rotation

Today's adventure: S and K's Little Gym class. In the weeks that follow, this will, I'll bet, be a great way for me to spend quality social and active time with them while their big brother, that lucky dog, gets to hang out at school. But today, it was three against me. Tumbling, running, screeching (them) and sweating profusely (me), and that was just getting them all out of the house. (Ba-dum-bump. Thank you, I'll be here all week.) You often hear the phrase "herding kittens" to describe an impossible task, and that's exactly how it feels to get them all fed, dressed and into the car when we're up against a deadline, real or arbitrary. Generally, by the time I've gotten them all snug and secure in their seats and I rev the engine, I'm ready to clunk my forehead down onto the steering wheel for a brief restorative nap.

So, yes, I am once again on the hunt for someone to help me out one day a week. My networking hasn't garnered any solid leads thus far, so I may go the agency route this time. I really wasn't very good at the whole interview-hire-manage gig when I was getting paid to do it, and of course, the stakes are stratospherically higher when the employee in question is endowed with the care of my precious offspring. Wish me luck!

Here's a quick snapshot of what we're tuned into this week:

BOOKS
Carter's reading Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs, I Stink! and I'm Dirty!, Lost and Found, and a few Olivia books.

Katie's fairly obsessed with My First Word Book, Good Morning, Digger and whatever else she thinks might impress Carter.

Spencer is fond of spotting whatever book Katie is reading, ripping it from her hands, then turning it upside down and "reading" it himself. How he can concentrate when she wails like that, I'll never know.

I'm kinda-sorta reading a very fluffy advice book from a mother of 10, Woman First, Family Always; This Day in the Life and Anderson Cooper's memoir, which is the best of the batch by far. I should be reading two parenting books, one Montessori guide and Rebecca, for the book club I belong to in name only. I'm waiting to read Miss American Pie, assuming that Mom will release it to me as promised.

Trey is reading the PhotoShop instruction manual and is now too irritated to contribute to this post. Backing away slowly...

MUSIC
Carter is, indisputably, El Jefe when it comes to our daily soundtrack. This week, we are hearing, ad nauseum, Sara Hickman's Big Kid, which is actually a lot of fun the first 4,000 times; the soundtrack to Dog Train (ditto) and a really goofy Christmas CD we bought two years ago that randomly inserts his name in the songs. It's computer-generated, so his name sounds like Car-Ter, which is admittedly better than CarLO, but still a little odd. He, of course, adores it.
In the car, he either demands an audio reading of Little Bear by Else Minaruk or the Dixie Chicks "Ready to Run." If I had a say in the matter, I'd listen to ANY OTHER Dixie Chicks song (preferably their new surly stuff), the as-yet-unreleased John Mayer or some classic Al Green. Or I'd (heaven!) randomly surf XM for an hour.

TV
Who has time? Okay, I did start to watch Spike Lee's documentary "When the Levees Broke" after we got the kids to bed, but I was a weepy mess after about five minutes. Ditto the news. Former FEMA director Michael Brown was on the Today show this morning and I really tried to be open-minded about him, but found myself wanting to hurl a heavy object at the screen at the sight of his mouth moving. He utterly fails to move me with his rehearsed indignance and hollow apologies that seem solely contrived to garner pity. But that's just me.

Well, now it's way too late and I'm much too tired to conjure a way to end this on a happy, snappy note... so tune in tomorrow for show-and-tell about Carter's first day at, yes, Westwood! (Feeling better now that our faux pinkeye scare is over... )