One Day at a Time

"Red and Rover" by Brian Basset 12/18/07

This week's "Red and Rover" strips are a perfect reflection of my kids, though they usually start campaigning 3-4 hours ahead of dinner time.

See, we have a pretty regular schedule during the week: they get breakfast around 6 and dinner around 4:30 when we get home from work. Basically the same routine every week day.

Weekends, on the other hand, may be an entirely different matter. Breakfast on weekends may come anywhere between 6 and 8 in the morning, depending on how late the husband wants to sleep in (he gets breakfast duty and I have supper duty). Generally speaking, dinner is served between 3:30-5, depending upon how persistent they get.

"Red and Rover" by Brian Basset 12/19/07

The dinner campaign usually begins around noon. It may start with a Remy-spaz-n-poke (a burst of rolling around on the floor while kicking up her feet followed by poking mom in the arm or whatever happens to be available).

(Yes, it looks like she's lying there innocently playing with her toys; what still photos don't show is the wagging tail that indicates a spaz is about to begin)

When we check water dishes, yes, they're full. Do they need out? Why, yes, that seems to be the issue. However, the backdoor is on the way to the food, so as we're heading to the back door, they get the bright idea that we're actually heading to dinner. "While we're in the area," they tell me, "we think it's dinner time." "It's not time yet. You are waaayyyy too early for dinner," I reply. They go out, come back in, and we all go back to whatever we were doing earlier.

This little game continues through the afternoon, with the spaz-n-pokes getting closer and closer together. Even Payton starts to join in as it gets closer to 3:30. But what may be the most amusing part of this whole routine is that we usually don't figure out the campaign has begun until we're well into it. Inevitably between 1 and 2 or so, either the hubby or I will suddenly exclaim, "You guys must be campaigning. That's why you're being so goofy."

And the kids just look at each other and say, "Duh."

"Red and Rover" by Brian Basset 12/20/07