Yesterday morning, at 0545, we got both kids out of bed and loaded them in the car. I drove the wife to the airport where she boarded a plane for San Francisco. She will return Thursday evening, so I had four days and three nights of hard fighting before I will be relieved. I'm used to dealing with the kids during the day without much help, but it is definitely nice knowing that in the event of screaming, blood loss, or general Daddy is going to snap emergency, the wife can run out of her office to save the day. When I take Lily upstairs for a nap, she can help with any potty needs or random injuries that might occur during a 3 year old being 3. This is the first time that I've had to handle the kids for more than 24 hours or so without any backup.
First thing when we woke them up in the morning, both kids gave me a look like, "Why are you waking me up, I was sleeping so well." I've seen that look before, from their Mother, when I'm leaving in the morning and I wake her up to tell her goodbye. I get the stink eye and yelled at. In the case of the kids, the stink eye was actually somewhat rewarding. Pretty sure I get to wake them up at least 300 more times between the hours of 1 AM and 6 AM for fun before the score is even.
Both were loaded into the care in their flame-retardant pajamas, so they'd be safe in the event of jet fuel explosion, and were very quiet on the way to the airport. Until Owen saw the planes and his quote was timeless. "WHHHOOOOOOOAAAAA!!!!" He came alive when he realized there were planes about. We've been to the airport overlook a lot to watch the planes take off and land, definitely one of his favorite activities, and here he was staring at them closer than ever before. Then he seemed to grasp that his Mommy was going to get into one of them and ACTUALLY GET TO FLY IN AN AIRPLANE!!!!!!!!
As we were leaving the airplane, he had tons of questions. "Where is Mommy going?" "Is she getting into an airplane?" "Can I get in an airplane?" "Can I go to Market Street, get Dungeness Crab from a street vendor, and see the Golden Gate?" Maybe that last one was me. I told him Mommy was going to San Francisco. Not to be one-upped, he announced he was going to North Carolina. Good job world traveler. Of course, he thinks he lives on North Carolina Street in the town of North Carolina, outside the city of North Carolina, in the United States of North Carolina. We're working on his address, but it's slow going.
Throughout the the last two days, he's been asking where Mommy is and needing her for everything. Including the screaming fit I twittered about yesterday when he wanted to show his balloon to Mommy. I've been trying to explain that Mommy is out of town at a very important work conference. Since his Mommy usually goes to work in her pajamas with bed head, he's just not getting this. So I've started to incorporate little facts about Mommy's business trip.
I told him that Mommy went to help Gru stop Vector during the moon heist. He's really into the minions from Despicable Me so that was pretty impressive. Mommy is helping Sir Topham Hatt eliminate confusion and delay on the Sodor Railway. I also explained that Mommy was helping Bob the Builder fix his small business software. Can we customize your import and create a new client field? YES WE CAN! At least I think I've heard some of those words from the wife when I pretend to pay attention to her talk about the day.
With all the rain yesterday, we generally spent most of our time knocking out videos and grocery shopping. The menu while the wife is gone includes pizza, macaroni and cheese with hot dogs, and peanut butter and jelly. I normally do all the cooking, but I'm going for things that take minimal time to prepare and include the maximum amount of gluten that the wife can't eat. Besides, he who turns his back on a 3 year old for more than 8 seconds will rue the day. While loading the car for various errands today and spending 3 minutes not paying full attention to him, he managed to find two crayons somewhere in the house. Normally, he couldn't give a flying stinky about coloring, but decided our couch needed some new orange and red lines. Of course crayon is the one thing I can;t get out of a microfiber couch. I like to be optimistic, so I'm glad he's finally into coloring...let me just burn these sharpies first.
Both kids have been in bed and asleep by about 7:10 so far. I'm thinking about setting alarms to wake them up at 3 AM so they'll be ready for bed time about 3 PM. It's never too early to start conditioning them for having kids of their own, right?
CK
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