One third of the family went to the Steelers game today and left us girls to fend for ourselves. That, of course, led to a Girls Day Out. We thought we would make maximum use of our lack of supervision and go buy our new fall wardrobes. First, we had to make it out of the house.

Usually when one adult is leaving without the other, both wake up and get showered before the first one takes off. For whatever reason, Daddy wanted to leave ridiculously early and I thought I would just sleep and figure out the shower thing after Alexis was awake. Around 8:00 I barricaded her upstairs, closed a couple of doors, and stocked her with toys o' plenty. What I should have done is lock her in her room and piled furniture in front of the door to make sure she couldn't escape. Within ten seconds of me stepping in the shower, she had moved the bathroom door so that it created a perfect deflector for the air conditioning vent. Then she pulled open the shower curtain and screamed "Peek-a-boo!" As she fell into a fit of giggles on the floor, I scurried to stop the cold air that was leaking through the toddler-sized hole where the shower curtain should have been. Once she collected herself enough to stand up, she took off running and started pulling things out of the cabinet under the sink. She distributed the various items all through her room in about 12 seconds and then returned for more "Peek-a-boo!" and a second giggle fit. Then she pulled out all of her bath soaps, gels, and toys and spread them all over the bathroom floor. And "Peek-a-boo!" giggle, giggle. That was followed by her opening all the soaps and gels and the creation of a rather lovely rainbow all over the bathroom rug. I don't really know what I was thinking when I bought the body paint for her, but I do know that if you mix red and yellow body paint with Dora bubble bath, you get a fantastic shade of orange that smells just like watermelon. It would have been even more impressive if I could have enjoyed it without cold air blowing through my shower like an arctic front.

Eventually (well, actually 6 minutes--I just plain gave up), I made it out of the shower somewhat clean. Alexis helped me clean up the disaster site and even put most of the items away herself. She wouldn't tell me what she did with the carpet cleaner, but I think everything else was eventually accounted for. We made it to the mall, spent lots of Daddy's money and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. But I'm pretty sure if you ask Alexis what the best part of the day was, she would say it was that 6 minutes where she was free to do whatever the heck she wanted and no adult was in a position to stop her.

Now I'm left with one question. What the hell do single parents do? Do they just not shower? Handcuff the toddler to the furnace? Really, I'm curious. And in awe of their awesomeness.