There are times when I really do have having skids around. Not necessarily for anything they do, just because they are there and it forces things to be different from when they aren't here.

For example, DH knows that I'd kill to be able to sleep in on Saturday mornings so when skids aren't here, he will get up and find something to do while I try, unsuccessfully to sleep past 7:15.

When skids are here, that goes out the window. This morning, at 7:22, I wake up to a dog standing over me, DH loudly shushing the kids, and two kids standing next to the bed laughing and asking "what can we do". Apparently the dog who sleeps at the foot of the bed heard the noise of the kids running downstairs and jumped up in a panic which the kids thought was funny.

Seriously, I have said it time and time again, on Saturday morning, get up, use the bathroom, brush your teeth, then play or watch TV until either I or DH calls for them. When they bother to do that, their noise usually wakes me fairly quickly which is annoying enough, but at least I get to decide whether to get out of bed or to lay around without having two kids breathing down my neck.

All that to say, I already can't wait for them to go back to their mother... On Thursday.