I have had my first few hours alone with the kids (KIDS!!??!! I don't know, that still sounds so funny to me!) this week. I think you learn when you are pretty young that it is not easy when you are outnumbered and holy moly, two is a lot more than one when it comes to kids.

Being alone with two kids is very challenging. I am still counting my blessings on the fact that Little Lady has been a super sleeper at night and I wake up feeling relatively rested, because I can't imagine a full day alone with no sleep.

We have been working on teaching Little Man to be more independent on stairs, because it is not easy going down the stairs with an infant and a toddler (and considering Little Man fell down a full flight of wooden stairs when he was 14 months old, I am especially paranoid).

Or how about when Little Lady blows out her pants (she is not so lady-like in this department) while you are outside and Little Man does not want to go inside? But you can't leave him outside by himself while you run in and put Little Lady down because he could either run into the road or run off the five-foot retaining wall in your backyard.

Or how about when you are so excited because you have two sleeping children and you are just about to close your eyes when Little Man wakes up after a one-hour nap, which is at least one hour shorter than normal.

This is not a complaint, by any means. But this is and will continue to be a challenge. When the Hubbs is home, I feel we can operate like a well-oiled machine. But two against one? That is going to take me some time to get better at. Little Man has been watching far too much TV for my liking, but sometimes it is the easiest solution.

I am both excited and nervous for reality to set in next week. Five days in a row home alone all day is going to test me in ways that I have not experienced before. I have a perverse need to be the best at everything I do and get frustrated when I don't feel like I am accomplishing that, so it should be interesting to see how this all unfolds.