before the deluge...

L, before the flood

Pretty peaceful, huh? This is the scene that every parent dreams about, the sweet, sleeping child.

This is L sleeping on her mom (who is buried somewhere beneath her) on Monday afternoon. I snapped this (and the second photo on this page) just before running off to get K at school.

But you shouldn't necessarily judge this book by its cover.

This is actually a picture of sickness. The whole adult household was sick. L wasn't sick, she was just tired. M was sick. I was sick too, but not quite as sick as M, so her's trumped mine. I got the crud a day or so before her, and never got it quite as badly (maybe because I had my flu shot this winter?). But as of Sunday morning, we were both wanting to just crawl into bed and sleep, snorffle and toss. Not an option, not with kids. I even took the girls down to the beach on Saturday, walking carefully so as not to disturb my throbbing head too much. And come Monday I took K to school in the morning and picked her up that afternoon, and in the car on the way home I told her that we were going to go in through the kitchen because I'd left her mom and sister asleep in the living room.

But when we slipped in the back door, everyone was awake.

L comes dancing up to me with a big grin: Dada! Dada!! I peed in my pantsies!

me: You did? (I glance over at M, who's just come up from the basement. the basement, where our washing machine lives. she's shaking her head with a wry smile).

L (leading the way to the living room): Yeah! Come and thee the couth!!

K: What?

Later I learn from M that she woke up to the sudden feeling of dampness, realizes what is happening, and lifts L up and off her, onto the floor. L opens her eyes, looks up, and then goes straight back to sleep. M (she's really sick, remember) strips off the couch cushion covers and starts laundry. Probably the thing she most wanted to do right then. After changing her clothes. Later, L wanted to "thee my wet clotheth!"

But when I left, things were quiet, peaceful, nearly angelic:

They don't stay that way....