Dads + kids= memories

Wednesdays.  The NO daycare day. Usually Brandon's mother and grandmother come over for the day to play with the kids and more often than not, I come home to a clean house with dishes done, toys put away and laundry caught up and folded.  It is really a sweet deal for me.

But on the off days where the grandma's are not able to come over for whatever reason, Wednesday become the day were Dad puts on his Mr. Mom pants and pretends he knows what he's doing.  The kids almost always come out of the day unscathed.
On just about any given Wednesday I wake up slightly later than usual since I don't have to get three kids dressed and ready to leave.  Sometimes I am lucky enough to sneak out while the whole house is still sleeping and arrive at work early to catch up on grading.  Throughout the day I just know that the kids have not brushed their teeth that morning, they will be in Pajamas all day, they will watch way more cartoons than I allow, and will survive on Top Raman and/or Peanut Butter and Jelly. I also know that when I get home to a Daddy Daycare day the house WILL be trashed.  But its okay, because they have fun with DAD ALL DAY LONG! Scooters, cars, barbies and chalk lay scattered amiss. New scrapes and bruises appear from too much rough housing.  Dirty faces will inevitably greet me at the door with their pearly whites beaming. 

Tonight was no different.  When I arrived home I cleaned up the kids, put pants on my son, and picked up toys before going to church.  But tonight, I allowed daddy to put the kids to bed due to popular demand.  Let's just clarify, this is MY JOB, and runs much more smoothly when I run the regiment.  But, I picked up my book, and listened to the endless FE FI FO's and giggles. Eventually, dad made it downstairs.  It was quite...until.....

Zechi's blood curdling screams! SOMETHING WAS WRONG! My mommy gear kicked in and I bounded up the stairs to find my son covered in glow in the dark material....his walls looking like I stepped into a galaxy.  Daddy put the kids to bed with glow sticks.  My son, being two years of age, bit off the tip of the glow stick and the liquid leaked onto his hands.  So he began to play-flinging the liquid onto the walls, the ceiling, the bedding, the toys, the carpet...and somewhere in the process, rubbed his eye and panicked.  Daddy, right behind me cleaned off the boy and then, because he is dad, joined in on the fun....opened more glow sticks and added to the star count. 

Now, my first reaction was speechlessness.  I have to admit, his room looked so cool.  And reality-the stuff fades and is invisible with the lights on.  But turn the lights off and I truly feel like I am in space checking out the milky way.  While I stood in the darkness with Zechi gazing at his, and daddy's creation, Brandon and Hannah got busy in her room.  She had rings of Saturn, and whale shaped constellations. The humor behind this is that NEITHER kid would sleep in their room at the end of it because, as Hannah so eloquently stated "it kinda freaks [her] out!" So we marveled and gazed, oohed and awed and at 10:15 (nearly two hours after bedtime) dad tucked them into our bed.  This time without glow sticks. Below is my best low aperture/shutter speed picture of the "Whale" constellation.