while I was gone

As I mentioned yesterday, my mind has been in other places, which is why I found myself scrambling late yesterday to get to Primo's cross-country meet before the starting pistol went off. I left in such a rush that I didn't have time to get shoes on my other kids, and ended up leaving them at home. (Mind you, my LSH's office is in our house, so they were not by themselves. But it was a mistake all the same.)

Soon after I left, Secondo apparently went outside to pet Midge. Terzo, who has missed his older brother's attention since school started, seized the opportunity and locked him out of the house until Secondo promised to play with him. Secondo, being a bit older and wiser, scooted around to my LSH's office and came in through that door.

But he was pretty darn angry, and Secondo's temper is nothing to sneeze at. He shoved Terzo out of the house, and locked the back door after him.

After crying and screaming for a bit, Terzo ran around to the front door, which Secondo had neglected to lock, and snuck in. Secondo, meanwhile, started to panic at Terzo's disappearance (knowing that it was his butt on the line if Terzo disappeared on his watch). He went outside, calling frantically for Terzo, obviously having no clue that Terzo was already in the house.

Which is of course when Terzo locked him out again. Being even craftier than his older brother, as a little brother must be to survive, he locked ALL of the doors -- including the one between the office and the house. Secondo was truly stuck, and he finally had to promise to play with him in order to gain access to the house before his father found out about their shenanigans. (Secondo's deal was that he would play with him if he was able to finish his homework before dark, and so he took his sweet time getting it done, punishing me in the process. For the life of me, I could not figure out why he was dragging his feet so thoroughly until all this came out.)

Meanwhile, my poor LSH is trying to operate a business with all this to-ing and fro-ing going on. You can bet that the younger two will be coming to every cross-country meet from now on, even if they are barefoot.