Home Alone

Well, not really alone! My two kids are here too, of course. But Dan has gone to visit our newborn nephew in Florida for the weekend. So I am doing my usual when on my own with the kids: planning almost every minute of every day so that the time will pass quickly until he returns.

As with Fridays, which I wrote about a few posts ago, the rare times when Dan is traveling have gotten much easier than they used to be. When Will and Ruth were babies and their dad was gone, I'd rise at 5 a.m. to guarantee a shower and a peaceful breakfast for myself. I'd prepare a day's worth of bottles of the tasty breast milk/formula combo they ate and have them lined up like soldiers on the bottom shelf of the fridge. At night I would fall into bed exhausted by 8:30 p.m. but then lie awake listening for any crying I might need to squelch so it wouldn't wake brother/sister.

Now, with the food and sleep situations stable and four-year-old so much more entertainable, I just have to make sure there are plenty of activities lined up to keep them engaged--hopefully some (like this afternoon's planned excursion to a bouncy castle place called Jumpin' Jordy's) that will let me have some time with a girlfriend who also needs activities for her kids (who are 3-YO triplets!).

There is also the matter of that 14-mile run scheduled for tomorrow (and my job on Sunday...but you can probably guess which of the two I was more worried about). When I emailed and called our two regular sitters, I asked for help both tomorrow (for the run) and Sunday (for work). In the end, one sitter is coming for the run, and the other for work. So I got lucky on both days: no missed miles, no used vacation time.

I'm very happy that Dan gets to make this trip. If he can make time for another later this year to help out his sister and her husband, I hope he will. But it does make me wonder....how do those of you whose husbands travel more often than mine get your runs (and other priorities) taken care of when the other kid expert in your house can't help?