Guest Post: Day 1

August 14, 2013

Hi all!

This is Andrew, filing my first guest-blog post during Margo’s absence, and well, we made it through Day 1. I’m actually writing this on Wednesday night, the first night of Margo’s trip, but I don’t expect to be able to post this until tomorrow as our internet (and TV) is currently on the fritz. It was like the Universe knew that I was about to be without Margo for the first time ever in our house and decided to take action to ensure that I would be alone with my thoughts once the girls went to bed.  The FiOS guy is coming tomorrow, though, so hopefully we’ll be back up and running at full speed at some point during the day tomorrow.

Anyway, today went really well for the most part. The girls and I drove Margo to the airport this morning and had a teary goodbye (well, most of the tears were from Mommy, with a scattered few from Greta as we drove away). Lucia was so sweet. In seeing Margo in tears, she said “Don’t be sad, Mommy,” and looked on concerned. I quickly plied them with a snack and water and we turned on Music Together and sang for most of the way home. We made a quick stop at Target before returning to the house, which was uneventful aside from me letting Lucia run up and down the aisles and pull things off the shelves.

Once we got home, we had lunch (leftover pesto for Lucia, and leftover “wheels” pasta with broccoli for Greta), and then made an early move to nap/quiet time at 12:30 as Greta was rubbing her eyes and Lucia said she was ready.

Lucia stayed up in her room until almost 2pm, and Greta was up shortly thereafter, then Greta sat on the couch and watched Lucia play with the ipad for 20 minutes or so until I rallied them to put on shoes and we headed off to the playground at Taylor Park. I love this playground, as it is fenced and I can therefore let Lucia and Greta run in opposite directions without freaking out. We stayed about an hour then headed home, and the girls watched a Doc McStuffins DVD while I made cookies and then their dinner. We ate out on the porch, and then spent some time with the neighbors and Lucia rode her scooter up and down the street. Of course, I forgot to make Lucia put her helmet on, and about 10 minutes into her ride she looked up at me and said “My helmet!” Our neighbor said, “I was going to say something, but then bit my tongue.” I glanced over at her son, helmet firmly in place. Crap.

Bath and bedtime went smoothly, and all was quiet by 8:30pm or so. Not bad at all. The real fun starts tomorrow, though. In the meantime, I’ve got the Mets game on our old radio, and a book about The United Fruit Company in Latin America, a topic I’m currently mildly obsessed with.  The windows are open and the weather is more mid-fall than mid-summer, and the crickets are chirping in the backyard.   

Andrew

PS: we spent some time in the backyard before dinner, and I took this short video of Lucia doing a crazy somersault over the exercise ball we let the girls play with outside. The first time she did this I really thought she might hurt herself, but she always giggles when she does it, and Greta always tries to copy her, as you will see…

PPS: Here are the things I’m most concerned about as I approach my 5 days as a solo parent:

1 -- Not hearing Greta in the morning. I sleep, well, soundly, and getting up early isn’t usually my preference. Greta doesn’t care about these things.

2 -- Forgetting their water bottles if/when we go somewhere.

   -- Forgetting to ask/make sure Lucia uses the potty before going anywhere

   -- Making sure they have fun with Daddy without spoiling them or undoing all of the parenting work Margo has done