Who is this person calling me "mom"?

My oldest daughter and her husband are renovating their kitchen. Seemed like a smarter move than buying a new house.

But we went out there a few days ago, and I couldn't believe what I saw. Let me preface this by mentioning that she is always cleaning. A clean freak. (OK, I may have had a small role in this but most of it's from her dad). Suffice it to say that a dust buster is never far from whatever room she's in.

So back to the house....
we walked in to a first floor that was pretty much totally gutted. No appliances. No cabinets. No ceilings or floors. Oh, and no sink or vanity in the bathroom. To get upstairs...which is where most of the things in the kitchen now reside...we had to maneuver under several very thick layers of plastic dropcloths put up to keep construction dust out (sort of).

The coffee pot is in the boys' bathroom. The toaster oven in the playroom. Cereal, crackers and other dry food goods are lined up neatly in the playroom along with paper plates and cups in case one of the boys gets hungry. There's an extra fridg in the garage but you have to go outside and through the garage to get to it.

And in the midst of all this mess, my daughter (the clean freak) is laughing and smiling and totally calm. And not even sedated (damn right, I asked!).

Last night she called to tell me they had a picnic on her comforter...in her bed. The boys loved it so they're doing it again.

Go figure. Sometimes you don't really know your kids after all.