This is why I could never be on time.

11.30 pm It all started last night when both of my kids decided to stay in bed with me.

10.30 pm (correction) Actually, it started even before that: we needed to lend our extra mattress to my brother-in-law, and a rail had to be reinstalled on my bed, which took up some bed space. When three people are sleeping in a bed for one, that extra space really counts.

12 am When the kids woke up in the middle of the night and fell back asleep, for some inexplicable reason my husband refused to transfer my daughter into her own bed, and I was afraid to wake up the spoiled brat whom we call our son. So I ended up sleeping with both of them. They both slept terribly - the baby likes to have his space, which was terribly lacking last night, and my daughter was coughing all night long. All of this translated into no sleep for mommy.

7 am When my cell phone/alarm went off, the kids were wide awake (damn that daylight savings thing), so to win a few more minutes in bed, I gave my cell phone to my son.

7.05 am He had the most beautiful smile when he was entrusted with my phone.

7.07 am Two minutes later he reminded me why I don't entrust him with that thing too often. He threw it in the space between the wall and the bed, and started saying, "Fell down, fell down" with complete amazement. I guess they didn't teach them the basic laws of physics in the playgroup: if you throw something down, it falls down, not up!

7.10 am So I got up and tried to retrieve the phone.

7.15 am Finally it occurred to me to use the broom (I was sleepy, OK?), and ten minutes, ten precious morning minutes later, the phone was in my hands, and somehow the baby got it again. Whatever...

7.25 am Though I had a terrible headache and already survived one moring adventure, I was still on track time wise. I gave the kids cereal, and they ate nicely together. I periodically was checking on them, and all was well.

7.50 am When I finally dressed myself and was ready to leave, I saw my little one with the empty bowl in his hands, and a smile that could not possibly mean anything good. I looked down and saw that leftover of his cereal was all over the carpet. I hate that carpet, so the fact that it was now covered in chocolate milk didn't bother me. The fact that I needed to clean it up before hubs saw the mess did bother me a little.

7.55 am So I frantically ran around the house trying to find broom. I knew that I left it in the kitchen, but it was not there. It wasn't in the living room, in either bedrooms, I even checked the bathroom. No broom.

8.05 am In the mean time I yelled at the kids to stay in one place so that cocoa puffs would not spread all over the house. If I tried to control the weather, I would get similar results.

8.08 am The cocoa puffs were now all over the house, and still no broom in sight. I asked the kids if they knew where the broom was, and my daughter told me that it was in the bedroom, same bedroom I searched four times before. I asked her to get it, and she said, "No". I guess our teenage years arrived early, yay for us! I asked again, and finally I got the teenage, "OK, mom" with the obligatory rolling of the eyes. What the ___?! To paraphrase my friend Sally, where was I when that sweet little creature turned into a teenage monster?

7.35 am (flashback) Turned out baby decided to retrieve a few more things from under the bed, and the broom was still there.

8.10 am Finally I had the broom and tried to sweep up soggy cocoa puffs from the carpet, and that didn't work at all.

8.15 am After unsuccessful and frantic 5 minute sweeping, all I got were five or six puffs. In the final stage of desperation, I started picking them up by hand, and got it done much more efficiently. Actually, my little one helped to pick up two of puffs without me asking. At this point I could no longer be mad at him for not staying on the couch.

8.25 am Finally, I put on my coat, look at the clock and I realize that I am half hour late.

Sigh. I got up on time...