Mr. Mom

This is Dave, dropping in for a visit on Maria's blog. Maria is in Glenns Falls, NY currently enjoying a fleeting taste of freedom before baby # 3 comes along. Whew...who knew parenting was this much work? I'm pretty sure every parent knows and I never listened when they told me. So, it is now Saturday afternoon at 4:27 p.m. CDT. The kids have been in bed for 27 minutes. Yes, they got to bed about 2.5 hours later than normal. In fact, normal hasn't been normal since Maria left on Thursday. I don't have her schedule down...and I tend to be a little laid back. *grin* The kids should be in bed by ~8:30 p.m. and up by 7 a.m. or so. They should take naps around 1:30 p.m. So, has their scheduled matched that since Maria departed our shores? It depends on what time zone your perspective is...in some time zone I have matched the normal schedule. :) But in the Central time zone I have not done so well. They've been getting to bed around 10 p.m. and up around 8:30 a.m. I've been getting to bed about 1:30 a.m. and up around 8:30 a.m. They've been getting down for naps around 3:30-4:00 p.m. and up by 5:30-6. So, yeah... See, it's never my intention for things to end up this way, but my ADD brain (bad brain!) never estimates realistic times for things (just ask Maria). Like today. It was about noon when I headed out the door to run a bunch of errands. Let's see...do recycling, return movie, get a coffee at Starbuck's, drive to Waterloo to the transfer station to try to get rid of some old florescent light fixtures, drive to Facets to get my ring sized (and it was closed), go to Sam's club for a few things. Sure...it's noon...I should have them in bed by 1:30 p.m. easy. See what I'm saying? Clearly not logical as I look at it now, but at noon it seemed possible. So, with all that said, bedtime has always been an 8:30 target...but I always head-out on errands that seem short when I leave, but then the kids end up in bed at 10. Oh well...I don't have my voice of reason (Maria) to inform me on how ridiculous my time estimates are. The kids aside, you never know how responsibly you really are until you lack all accountability. So, what have I done the last couple nights? Rented movies and gotten to bed at 1:30 a.m. It has been fun, though. Plus, I've gotten movies that Maria wouldn't want to watch anyway. The first night we had Mc Donald's for supper. Mmmm...healthy. The kids didn't finish their cheeseburgers, so I had some of their leftovers...following my meal of course. Mmmm...healthy. If this email seems a bit chaotic and unorganized, then you're getting the right picture about life without mom around! :) Friday we got breakfast cleaned up about 10 a.m. Not bad. :) Headed out to Bob Smith Sr.'s to help him hook up a printer. Hoped to meet up with Violet's friend Katie and her mom Kim at the library for puppet/story time at 10:30. Another 'solid' time estimate. I'd leave our house at 10, get to Bob's (10 mins), hook up the printer, and drive to the library (10+ mins) in time for storytime...or be just a little late. Well, it wasn't a simple printer hook up job (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) and I wrapped up about 11:45 and was invited to stay for lunch at Bob's. I was more than happy to give up my visions of feeding kids at our house and having to make lunch and all that and clean-up. I stayed for lunch and we all ate well with Deanna's cooking! I had been promising to fly kites with Violet so I figured we'd squeeze that in before nap time. We had a lot of fun doing that. We bought Violet a butterfly kite. She had it fully extended in the sky for the longest time. Couldn't stop announcing that her kite was higher than Calvin's. Calvin's kite was a Toy Story kite. I got it up for him and told him to not let go. Ha. Next thing, Violet is screaming bloody murder because Calvin has let his kite go and surely the world was going to end imminently. It didn't. I caught the kite after a good dash, and Violet was coaxed back to a state of relative peace. Fun. So, Calvin flew his kite for bursts of 10 seconds at a time, then handed it back to me and wandered around. We did have fun...it was a lovely day. So, this was after lunch...so nap time arrived a bit late on Friday. I got them down finally, after washing dirty little feet and cleaning green yogurt from Calvin's shirt. Ah...now what. I had a project. When the flood hit in 2008 we had a large plastic outdoor storage bin that got flooded. Post flood, we were not in the mode of 'lets save things,' as all appeared to be lost and all was covered in detestable mud. I had tried to beat this thing into pieces with a large hammer to get it out of the shed it was in when the flood hit. My visions of bashing it to pieces ended up with me taking it appart because it would not bash...it would only minorly crack. It then laid around outside for the better part of two years, enduring all types of weather. It was caked with mud and sand and was a sad sight. About a week ago I saw it and thought, this thing will not die. It is a fighter. It deserves to live. It would be more trouble to dispose of it. So I brought it to our house and during nap time on Friday I got out the power washer and cleaned every piece of that baby. I was drenched and muddy from head to toe (you know how spraying a power washer into small plastic cavities causes much reverse spray...). That thing snapped right back together as good as new. Wow. So, that was naptime on Friday. Violet awoke at the end of that and I swept out the garage. I then put on a movie for the kids while I showered...again. Then it was out to do some errands. Another gross miscalculation. Went to the movie store, then to the river house, then to Home Depot to return some windows, then home to feed the kids. How does Calvin get the most brightly colored thing he's eating on his clothes everytime...with a huge bib on, even? So, throw his clothes in oxyclean for the night. And they were in bed by 9:30-10. Ah...what is wrong with me? Oxyclean...bad idea...had new bluejeans with new striped shirt with lots of white striping. This morning the while striping had turned blue. Drgh....harumph. Took out the jeans, new water...oxyclean with just the shirt this time. Hope to resurrect! This morning, up at the 8:30 crack in the morning. Reheated pancakes for breakfast. Feeling like a maid. Ok...now i can eat. Ok...put the kids in front of a movie...head to the shower. Now it's a bright and early start to the day and I'm heaing out the door at noon. Which loops us back to an earlier part in the email where I already described the day. Except for the part where Calvin had poop on his finger that he was very very distressed about when I went in his room at 8:30 this a.m. It must have just happened cause it wasn't on anything else I could find. I'm thankful he knows what it is and is disgusted by it and doesn't want to touch anything else. Good Calvin! :) So, after cleaning that out from under his fingernails and up his back, we were good to go. Boy... So, here I am at the one span of freedom in the day...nap time. An hour of it has gone by already, so I better get to work fixing the closet door, hosing out the garage and trimming our acre worth of bushes...all in the next ~ 1 hour till the kids wake up. Yeah...right. I know how this will turn out. I should take my ADD meds or something...these ambitious time estimates will be the end of me. We're missing mommy. We need her to return to synch this ship back up, and bring clarity and reality back to our reality. :) We love you, Mommie! Looking forward to your return. This mom stuff is quite a trip. :) Signing off on Saturday afternoon. ~Mr. Mom.