Thankful

The kids in Lucia's preschool class were asked recently what they were thankful for; the teacher wrote each of their answers on a sheet of paper, which each kid then decorated. Lucia's read, "I am thankful for giving my sister hugs and for my daddy. Especially when he comes home from a trip."

Isn't that too cute? Andrew was on a business trip last week, gone for five days to California, so the week without Daddy must have been either in progress or fresh in her mind. I'm thankful when Andrew gets back from a trip, too. It was a long week, but we managed, really fraying only at the very end of Friday, when we'd expected Andrew to get home earlier than he actually did and we were all just tired and ready for things to be back to normal.

The hardest part of being alone for this long stretches of time was just taking care of myself--showering, getting dressed, getting my contacts in. The days themselves--this time, at least--went along pretty smoothly, helped in part by the girls' renewed interest in the basement rec room, our haven now that the weather is once again cold. They ride their scooters down there, and play in the ball hut and tunnel, and color at the art table, and strew glass stones everywhere. They play an endless game of pretending to fall off their scooters and helping each other up. (Lucia does dangerous-looking crash landings from her scooter; Greta just stops riding and sits down on the floor with a dramatic "Oh no!")

Last week--really a full five days--was my longest stretch of solo parenting yet, with no grandparent help. And though I dread Andrew's trips, really dread them, each one does seem to get a tiny bit easier, now that there's preschool, sisterly playing, and less squabbling (usually). I don't think I'll ever like being here alone, but at least as the girls get older it might get a little less exhausting.

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