Respite

Today was the day Chris left for her 24 hour scrapping weekend, or as I like to call it, the 'Why did we buy a fancy digital camera if you were just going to cut up perfectly good pictures then glue them back together and call it a scrapbook-a-thon.' She's just one town over but that meant that I would be flying solo for the longest stretch of time thus far.

The kids took the situation in stride. We told them that mommy had to work on Saturday and would be back for lunch on Sunday. No explanation asked for or given. I don't know exactly what things were like in Ethiopia for them, but so far, saying "I need to go to work" goes completely unquestioned. They have their trump card too, though. We'll stop, drop, and run if one of them says they need to go to the toilet. It just isn't worth arguing about or the stress of possibly incorrectly calling a bluff. Anyway, so emotionally Chris was cleared for take off... well, from the kids at least. I, however, had to put on my, "That's cool, Baby. Have a great weekend" face and then mutter, "Crap, what am I going to do now?" over and over to myself when no one was listening.

So my saving grace came in the form of a pool party/barbecue. We were told we could come as early and stay as late as we wanted by the hosts who really should have known better. So 24 hours later... just kidding, but we did stay from noon until bedtime, about 8 hours. H was pinned to my side for the first 2 hours until he finally concluded just how boring his father is, and went swimming. I know the time will come when I miss my son clinging to me, but really... dude, you are 10 and there's airhockey in the basement, why are you hanging out with me? Y was perfectly content doing flips on the trampoline and running around with the other kids w/o any parent intervention until she needed a push on the swing. Thank goodness I'm still good for something!

Chris sounded great and relaxed on the phone. The kids were well behaved and got to play in a pool literally all afternoon. And I'm just happy everyone's happy and that I didn't have to cook.