My alarm wakes me up mid dream at 5:30am. It is four days into the work week and the 5:30am wake up isn't as jarring as it is on Monday. I spin around on the bed into Cat's pose trying to loosen myself up. I've been feeling very unloose lately. Pee. Brush teeth. Put on workout garb and head downstairs. The fall morning light is waking up with me as it shines through the apartment top window. Aidan is sleeping on the coach as I begin my minute working on in the adjourning kitchen/dining room combo. 25 minutes later I am done and ready for breakfast which I premade for the week. A quick microwave and I am sitting down eating, drinking instant coffee, and checking the overnight sports news. I shower and I dress and then it is 6:50am when I wake up the kids.

The kids parade into the bathroom to brush their teeth and pee. Two of them are chatting happily in a language I do not understand. One is quiet. It is this way on most mornings, two chatty, one quiet, but not always the same sets. I feel a rush to get them to school and me to rush. There is really no need to rush, we've done this routine plenty of times and it only takes so long. I ask Elisa to take out the cereal bowls as I grab the cereal. She makes some halfhearted move, not really hearing me, so I put the small plastic bowls on the table. I need to assemble their lunches while they eat so the time pressure I feel is building. I grab the mild from the fridge and it is almost empty. There is another small "bag" of milk that Elisa wanted a couple of days ago that I bought (if you live in the US you probably are not family will the small bags of mile, about the size of a small bag of chips but with milk inside). The bag is on the refrigerator door and I grab it thinking I need to cut the corner off of it so I can pour it. Except that it is not milk, it is yogurt. Except that I don't need to open it, it is already open. This means that when I squeezed the "milk", yogurt sloshed all over my clothes and onto the floor. I immediately did what all good dads do, look for someone to blame. But there wasn't really anyone so I made some hasty comment about needed to close open bags of yogurt with a clip when putting them back in the fridge. Since it was likely they ayi who did it, correcting the kids would not help. If it was one of the kids, I'm sure they got the message.

I hastily change clothes which is getting more difficult as there are fewer clothes I feel comfortable wearing. Need to run more and eat less. I go downstairs and finish assembling the kid's lunches. I remind the kids like three times to get their jacket and shoes on. "Be ready to go" like it is NASCAR. After my second reminder I notice Lydia is already standing with her shoes, jacket, and backpack on. Ready to go. They are waiting on me. I leave the dishes unwashed in the sink which I hate to do. But we are late. Late against my internal artificial clock.

I get them downstairs and search for a chariot ride to school for them. We find one and they are board and are off. I turn and walk to the subway.

Later, when I am home from work I noticed that Elisa and Lydia both made their bed in the morning. Somehow it is working. The beds are not military crisp but I like Elisa's touch. Good night bear.