What a pleasant evening we had tonight. We both got home at a reasonable hour, and we spent good, quality time with Chloe and Sophie. I didn’t look at the computer once, and my withdrawal wasn’t so bad. Just some sporadic tremors.

The best part was that I think my discussion with Chloe about her needing to make choices regarding how she spends her time before bed actually made an impact. Chloe created a schedule for herself – carving out a good hour every evening for “playing with family.”

Whether her partner in playtime crime be Sophie, our babysitter, Papa, Grammy or me, she will be playing with at least one of us before bed. She hasn’t sacrificed her TV shows – she’s just organizing her time. We’ll see how she does. But I’m glad she took our conversation to heart.

In the meantime, little Sophie is on a “dude!” kick. She’s not a dude, or even a dudette – and neither is Chloe. But my husband and I are dudes. Sometimes we’re “poops.” I obviously prefer the former. Chloe obviously prefers the latter. Kids will be kids, after all.