This Week Will Be an Interesting One

Beginning today, we cannot park on our street through Friday because they are repaving and restriping our community. We either have to park on the access road or the next street over in our community. This isn’t a terrible inconvenience, but it breaks up the daily routine slightly, and folks with little kids know how useful those routines can be. Actually, it wouldn’t be that big a deal at all, except…

On Thursday, Kelly heads off to a conference out west for 4 days and it will be me and the kids all alone. Remarkable as it seems, this will be my first time with both kids by myself overnight. Times three nights. Before the Little Miss was born, Kelly had a business trip in Chicago and it was me and the Little Man for a few days, but both kids should be interesting.

Meanwhile, the Little Miss has been sick–fever, runny nose, cough–and is finally over it. But the Little Man was coughing this morning. No fever (yet!) but I’ve found that brothers and sisters like to copy one another and I imagine the Little Man’s fever will rear its ugly head just before I take Kelly to the airport on Thursday morning. I’ll check back in and let you know if I was right nor not.

On top of all this, we began migrating everything from our kitchen into other rooms of the house because one week from today, the day after Kelly returns from her trip out west, the crew arrives to demolish our kitchen and then rebuilt it, more to our tastes. We made good progress last night, but the rest of the work will have to be done over the next several evenings, and if we don’t finish, it means I’ll need to do it while Kelly is away, and I am home with the kids.

On Saturday, the kids have soccer and ballet at the same time, which will be an interesting challenge for one person. And Saturday afternoon they have a birthday party to attend. In addition to “doing something fun,” although I haven’t exactly figured out what that something is yet.

So, to sum up:

1. We can’t park on our street this week.
2. I’ll be on my own with both kids for three nights for the first time.
3. We have to empty out our kitchen by Sunday night.
4. The Little Man is likely to catch whatever the Little Miss had.

Oh, and of course, I’ll be squeezing in my writing every day at some point, although later in the week, it will most likely be after I’ve gotten the kids off to bed.

I thought about all of this yesterday, which was Mother’s Day here in the U.S., and it was a good reminder to me about how much Kelly manages to do that makes the days seems smooth and seamless. We share chores, but you get used to what you do (I bathe the kids, get them dressed in the mornings, get their breakfast, etc.) and you don’t really see what your comrade in arms does (a list far too long for me to included here; just assume everything not listed above) because it just gets done as if by magic.

So, if I seem a little on edge this week, you at least have some inkling as to why. And if I seem a little on edge next week, well, it’s because of all of the banging and dust and construction that will be happening in the house–to say nothing of lack of a kitchen.