72 hours of freedom

The last three days have been a mixture of blood, sweat, and a few tears. The wife took both kids (there are only two of them, right?) to her parent's place for the long weekend. I was both excited and a little bummed. Excited because it gives me a taste of that bachelor freedom from years ago. Bummed because I have a ton of fun with them.

I had big plans to get some work done around the house. The iPod was charged and loaded, all the heavy machinery was ready to go, and I did get a ton of stuff finished over the course of the weekend. Of course, I also spent a lot of time trying to come up with toddler friendly words to replace the old sailor friendly language I usually use when I cut my finger, slam a thumb, or drop the heavy machinery on my foot. I was really trying to practice because Owen is starting to want to help with things. Pretty sure "Son of a..." isn't the best thing to enthusiastically yell in front of someone who likes repeating terms ad nauseum that have been enthusiastically yelled. I'm currently fond of "Bust my buffers!" "Cinders and ashes!" and "Pit stop!" Okay, I stole them from Thomas the Tank Engine and the movie Cars, what do you want from me?

Not only did I catch up on projects around the home, I managed to squeeze some time with my parents on their boat. I was astonished to discover that taking a toddler on the boat means I'm exhausted at the end of the day. Going on the boat without the toddler results in a day on the lake that ends with me feeling rested. Even took a short nap out there. A NAP!

I did miss the family and couldn't wait to see them when they came home this afternoon. The car pulled up in the driveway, the door opened, and I was greeted by the exhausted mother of my children, a screaming little boy, and a girl baby that would be screaming within 60 seconds. Our house finally felt like a home again. All that peace and quiet just wasn't right, turns out I kind of missed the chaos. Not much, but I did miss it. The clock currently shows 9:30 on the Fourth of July with fireworks going off all over the neighborhood. We'd both rather be in bed asleep right now. Life is back to normal.

Back to the salt mines tomorrow as a SAHD. Just need to remember to use my new toddler friendly epithets as I gently parent them through life.

CK