It's 9:25pm. . .

And Our Hero is still awake.  Julie just went in to the bambini's room to whisper "I love you Joseph Trump Ekkers," and "I love you Clara Jane Ekkers," before heading upstairs to bed, and Joe popped right up as she entered and (sleepily) said, "Mommy, is it wake up time?"  When Julie told him no, he asked why, and Julie tried not to laugh and explained that to wake up, one first had to sleep.  Joe said o-kay.

Birdie, meanwhile, was lying in her crib, asleep, in her pajamas, but sockless.  There was nothing else in her crib.  That's because everything was on the floor.  Everything included Pink Dog, Pink Bear, Baby Doll 1, Baby Doll 2, Pillow Pet Gorilla, Georgia the Giraffe, My Cat, and two blankets.  Julie also noted that the blinds were askew.  Clearly, Birdie had been busy.

The bambini were on a bit of a tear when we arrived home after joining Marco for his birthday dinner at Yum!  The tear began when Joe made to exit Yum! without a parent and then really got going when he all but laughed when he was given a talking to about making to run out of places without a responsible minded adult in tow.  Conditions were, thus, ripe for all sort of pre-bath shenanigans to ensue, but they did not and here's why: because Julie and Ted decided they weren't up for shenanigans.  So it was that the bambini were told that bathing is a privilege, in which they would not be partaking tonight.  Joe wailed until he was told that if he didn't cut that right out and pull himself together, Julie would not be reading books this evening.  (He stopped wailing immediately.)

But the bambini were not done.  No pre-bath shenanigans?  Story time shenanigans it is!  Except Julie was having none of that either.  Julie does, as our Loyal Readers know, love reading bedtime stories, but not with Loopy Loo McGoo and Loopy Loo McGee.  After Julie had told Joe for the second time to sit on his bottom and find a position in which he could be mostly still, and he started thumping his leg like a jackrabbit or something, while grinning, Julie snapped The Very Busy Spider shut and said enough.

So the bambini were put to bed and told that no one would be coming in if they pitched their "friends" on the floor, or their blankets, or if they got an owie because they smacked their heads or arms or legs or whatever on the wall or bed or crib or whatever because they were acting like goofs.  They were on their own!

And so were Ted and Julie who retired to the porch for twilight cocktails.  They came back in an hour later at 8:32pm, and this is what they heard.*

Kind of hard to say who had the last laugh, huh, Fans?

*At the Zoo is still at the top of the Raleigh House Billboard chart.