Can't Do It Alone

I have no idea how single parents or people whose spouse works very late every night manage a nighttime routine with 2 kids. Last night, David had to go pick up his old car that was getting fixed before he returns it at the end of its lease. Simon, Eli and I got home from a playdate at Julian's house (not the best playdate--Julian whacked Simon in the face with a plastic bat and all the kids, Andrew was there too, fought much more than they usually do. They did get along long enough to all sit on the window seat together looking out the window and saying "there's a storm coming. A big storm.") around 6:30. David was home then, so I started Simon's bath while David took care of Eli. Charles picked David up just as Simon was getting out of the tub, so Eli sat in his bouncy seat while I got Simon in his pj's and we played for a few minutes. Then I asked Simon if he wanted to read books with Eli too and he said yes, so we all sat in Simon's chair and read 3 books. Eli started to get cranky toward the end of the 3rd book at the same time that Simon asked for more milk. I took Eli with me to get the milk (even though Simon really wanted Eli to sit with him on the chair while I left the room) and that calmed him down. Then we turned off the light to sing songs and Eli was still ok while we were singing until Simon didn't want to sing anymore but wanted to talk about his day. I usually love when he does this, but Eli was really not into it and was very kvetchy as Simon was very cute talking about playing with shaving cream and making jello and running very fast and bumping into Max. Then Eli started really crying so I told Simon that it was time to sing songs and go n'night. Then he started crying too. When David got home, both kids were screaming, proving me incapable of doing the bedtime routine by myself. I have to go out tonight so we'll see how David does on his own...