2

Wednesday. As if our house wasn't crowded ENOUGH, now GRANDPA is living with us. They raised the rent at Leisure Towers, and he couldn't afford to live there anymore. So Mom invited Grandpa to move in with OUR family. Dad wasn't so hot on the idea, even though Grandpa is his own father. But Mom says it will be just like the old days, when three generations lived under the same roof. I think Mom has this rosy image of the way things used to be, but I have a TOTALLY different picture of what it must've been like back then.

I was actually OK with Grandpa moving in with us until I realized what it meant for ME. Mom let Grandpa pick any bedroom he wanted, and of course he chose MINE. That meant I needed to find a new place to sleep. My first thought was to go to the guest room, but I forgot that's where the pig stays. And there's no WAY I'm sharing the pullout couch with a barn animal.

I ruled out RODRICK'S room right away, because he might actually be a step down from the PIG. My only other choice was to room with MANNY, so I got out the air bed and set it up on his floor. But sleeping in Manny's room has its OWN problems. Mom reads Manny a bedtime story every night, and sometimes they're really LONG. In fact, lately I think Manny's been picking out the thickest books he can find just to get on my nerves.

Things have been a little tense ever since Grandpa moved in. You can tell he doesn't really approve of the way Mom and Dad are raising us kids, even though he never actually comes out and SAYS it. Mom's been trying to potty train Manny FOREVER, and she's experimenting with something called "No Pants After Dinner." And it's EXACTLY what it sounds like. What's SUPPOSED to happen is that when Manny feels the urge to GO, he'll run to the bathroom.

But Manny just prances around all night with nothing on below the waist. And eventually he ducks behind the recliner in the family room. I don't think Dad's a huge fan of No Pants After Dinner, but I can tell he's even MORE uncomfortable with Grandpa being here to witness it. It's pretty obvious having Grandpa around is really stressing Dad out. And every time one of us kids screws up, it just makes Dad even MORE tense.

What seems to annoy Dad the MOST is when one of us kids asks Mom to do something that we should be able to do OURSELVES. Yesterday I asked Mom to open a microwave burrito for me, because I always have trouble with those plastic packages. But Dad jumped all over my case. He said if I was stranded on a desert island with a thousand microwave burritos, I'd STARVE to death because I couldn't figure out how to open them on my own.