Ha-ha! You have to have a sense of humor to be a Mom. Yesterday morning I woke up and reached for my glass of water and almost had a heart attack. A swarm of earthworms in there! And a flower on the night table next to it. Thanks boys! You really do know what makes me happy. That's just an intro to my new day.

Like earthworms were not enough to wake me up, I got a phone call from my dear Russian friend asking me to babysit her little girl for 6 hours starting, like, in 20 minutes. And I haven't gotten out of bed yet. If only I hadn't gone to bed at 2 am last night helping Nadia with her school project carving the Supreme Court Building out of foam board.. If only my sister was still in town.. If I had not been so depressed about her departure.. I guess, I had no choice, sooner or later I would need to start living a life full of preschool-age kids and a baby. Of course, I can babysit!

It's one thing when you're dealing with them one at a time, or two at a time. But when you have them all at once - it's nuts. So be it! The house is officially invaded by an army of little people. I let them jump around, bring in bugs and piles of dirt, heck, I even let them do the dishes!

The water has been running for a little too long, for as long as Tavish has been feeding, to be precise. Do I dare to walk into the kitchen and witness the cruelty of my life? I take a peek. The pile of dishes in the sink is as monumental as it was this morning. Dish soap has changed its form from orange liquid in the bottle to thick lather on every counter top up to the ceiling and covering hard wood floors in the 5 ft radius around the kitchen sink counter. Mamma mia!

The most obnoxious thing was that the boys were having a little too much fun, sliding on the slippery floor. I was insulted that they did not even feel bad for the mess they made. Anger boiled inside my head, I rushed towards them, grabbed them by their arms and dragged them up the stairs with the intention to lock'em up in their room for the longest time-out EVAR!

But what do you know? These two were laughing the whole way, loudly and uncontrollably. They were not even a little bit upset at the prospect of sitting in their bedroom for the rest of the day! (duh, the party will just go on upstairs, haven't I learned that?) This obviously was not working. I stopped halfway, and sat on the stairs across from them. They continued laughing out loud into my huffing and puffing face. I could not hold it any more and... bursted out laughing back at them. They've won. My two little captives have totally won this battle. When there is nothing to lose and a time-out is how this awesome fun is going to be ruined then LAUGH. Laugh hard, laugh uncontrollably, laugh your lungs out, kill the party-killer with your positive attitude! They were my teachers that day, no doubt. But my supermom ability to seize the moment and teach my posterity a lesson jumped right into action.

"Ok, guys, that was fun, wasn't it? Did you have a good time? Do you wanna do something even more fun? (They nod enthusiastically.) Then come with me!" (They follow.) I get three kitchen towels out of the drawer and give one to each boy. "This is what we'll do." And I start wiping the soapy floors supporting my action by excited comments like "Oh, this is great fun! Join me! Let's do it together!" They do. Soon, our guest girl is excited about this too and asks for a towel. I hand her my towel and let the kids finish "cleaning" the kitchen. This was a much better ending to the story, I think. I'll save "time-outs" for more serious crimes.