Charlotte, NC: 60 hours, 3 margarita pitchers, one playdate and one REAL date.

I'm back in Virginia now after going to Charlotte for a few days, where I saw the lovely Holbrook Family. Had a great time, which I'll attempt to elaborate on here (sorry, my blackberry barely got out during the trip). I got there Sunday night, drank some wine with Meghan and chatted for a few bajillion hours, and we tried to turn in early. We went running Monday morning with her neighbor and friend, and I could not make it as far as they did, with about 200 yards left, I promptly...threw up. It happens when I run in heat - without fail. Yes, it was hot, we ran at 6:30 am and it was already at least 90 degrees in the shade. So we took the kids after breakfast and clean-up to the Air Conditioned field trip - the mall. We had lunch at Nordstrom Cafe, then went home for quiet time. Played after quiet time, played some more, ate dinner, played some more, and Matt got them bathed when he got home. At this point, we decided to fix Mollyritas and Meghanritas. With no MAJOR meltdowns (that I could detect), we clinked glasses "to bedtime"...Meghan went upstairs while they were mixing and read to and tucked in the kids. While I was downstairs cleaning up (I always feel like bedtime goes smoother with fewer out-of-routine things happening, so I let mom and dad do their thing around bedtime), I realized:

Kids are effing EXHAUSTING.

I said the same thing to both of them after they came back down: I don't know how you do it. Yes, they're great kids, are very cute, very fun to play with, very entertaining, and all that fun stuff, but seriously, you have to watch every second of everything they're doing. I knew this already - I mean really, I've babysat since I was old enough to pick a child up and our family is still bigger than Angelina Jolie & Brad Pitt's little group home, so I got lots of experience - but I suddenly remembered things like the fact that you've got to pee with the door open, that naptime is just as important for Mom as it is for kids, and that there is nothing faster than a toddler going towards danger when adult backs are turned. While I was cleaning up every night, all I could think was this: it was EASIER than the normal routine - we could divide up the labor with me there helping Meghan - and they have to get up and do this AGAIN. EVERY DAY. I love kids and would love to have them, and I know that it's different when they're your own, but I'm always amazed at the world's most effective method of birth control - kids.

So Monday was all kids day, and Tuesday was looking to be the same - Caroline had a friend come over for a playdate, Meghan and the playdate-Mom and I chatted while we kept six eyes on three kids, alternating man-on-man play with a pure Zone Defense style of supervising. I got the feeling like playdates are also just as much for Mom as it is for the kids. We all had a lot of fun (pretend hot-dog party!) and the playdate left shortly before lunch. I thought we'd end up repeating the same sort of routine as Monday, but...

Molly got a dose of the single life again.

Meghan had said over the past year or so that she wanted to set me up with Matt's friend from college, and we had sort of "met" over facebook already. He called Meghan's house and came by right before quiet time, and he and I went out to lunch. Had some Mexican food, chatted, checked on his car that was in the shop (he had a rental) and he dropped me back off at the Holbrooks' a few hours later. We made some plans to do something later that night, and after the kids ate some chicken nuggets for dinner, he came back, picked me up, and we went out for a light dinner. A good time was had by all (well, I can't speak for him, but I had fun), and I went back to Matt and Meghan's house after we had some beers at the pub and got some sleep.

I left reeeeally early this morning to go back to Lynchburg, (I didn't want my departure to mess up their morning routine and I had no idea what traffic would be like), took the wrong turn FOUR times because of a lack of sleep (I kept driving South instead of North - Freudian slip?), turned my rental car back in, got into my mom's house and PROMPTLY passed out.

I had a great time all in all, and I'll post some pics as soon as I can locate a cord. I was really surprised at what a nice city Charlotte is, I was sort of reminded of Atlanta, ten years ago. We'll have to do it again soon, maybe the Atlanta peeps can drive three hours north and I can drive three hours south? Don't worry, Meghan, we'll go hotel rooms instead of you having to put us up.

I still have no idea how they do it...my back is still killing me from picking up a three-year-old and a surprisingly heavy one-year-old.

Off to find Advil.