Ladies and gentlemen, Travis at the keyboard here. I generally provide input to the blog, but it's rare that I write a post of my own. So, lucky you!
A couple months ago, one of Jeanette's best friends announced that she was going to have a family only destination wedding in Iceland. So, she was inviting her close friends for a weekend-long celebration and bachelorette party in San Francisco... "Can I go? Please, please, please can I go???" Or something like that. Jeanette told me that she could get one of the Philippino housemaids to babysit the girls on the three workdays, so all I would have to do is take care of them in the mornings, evenings and the weekend. How hard could it be?
Jeanette did a great job of setting me up for success. She laid out a schedule for activities, meals and clothes, and even got their outfits ready for me. She knows where I would fail, left to my own devices...
The car came at 7:00 Wednesday night to take J to the airport. When it was time for the girls to say bye to her, Ellie laughed and repeated, "No bye bye! No bye bye!" She was sure this must have been a joke. Fortunately the rest of that night went easily for the most part, since I usually do the bath time and bedtime duties anyway.
Thursday morning I stayed home until the babysitter (Love) got here to take care of the girls. I normally leave the house at 5:30 or 6:00 so I got up at normal time to get myself ready. The girls woke up at about 6:00 and Love got there at 6:25. I started to put on my nomex to make the 6:30 bus to the plant, but as soon as I did Lucy's bottom lip shot out and she started crying. I told her I could wait until the 7:00 ride. :) I have to say... eating breakfast at my own pace, enjoying my coffee and being able to spend some time with the girls before going to work was amazing. I might have to find a way to do that more often!
That night we went to Chili's for dinner with the Clarks and Copelands. It was a pretty normal dinner ("You asked for chicken nuggets. Why do you want macaroni now?" "You said milk, so I got you milk." "We are never going out to eat again.") but there was one significant highlight: For the first time ever, Lucy went poop in a public bathroom! I was equally proud and disgusted... could have picked a better place than the men's restroom at Jubail Chili's for such a milestone.
Friday morning was a repeat of Thursday, then Lucy went to Shenkir's to play with her friends, and we hung around for lunch. (Thanks!) That afternoon was the Murjan easter egg hunt and potluck, so it was good to take the morning easy. The 0-3 year old egg hunt started at 4:00, and (as every mother in Murjan can tell you) we showed up right on time. As in, NOT late. Both girls did pretty well hunting for eggs and ate entirely too much chocolate.
The potluck was a fun event, with plenty of folks around to give the girls attention. I was mostly able to keep track of where they were, and Ellie only fell off a table once. (It wasn't as bad as that sounds... I promise!)
Sunday morning came all too fast, as it usually does. When I got the girls up I noticed that they both had a bit of a cough and felt a little warm, but they didn't have a fever. I asked Lucy if she wanted to go to school, and she said no, so I told Love to go ahead and keep the girls home. I got to work at 7:30 and had meetings at 8:00, 9:00, 9:30 and 10:00 (which lasted until 12:15... Mind you I missed my 6:00 and 6:30 meetings!), then as I sat down to lunch at about 12:30 I got a call saying that both girls were running fevers and I needed to head home. Sigh. Thankfully by the time I got there both of their temps had started going down, so we never ended up going to the hospital. I have to say thank you to the Murjan wives (aka Night Ninjas) who helped out with the girls and made sure I was contacted just in case we did have to go!
Sunday night... Sunday night will go down in infamy. Sunday night was the Tylenol war. Again, we turn to my Facebook feed:
A couple months ago, one of Jeanette's best friends announced that she was going to have a family only destination wedding in Iceland. So, she was inviting her close friends for a weekend-long celebration and bachelorette party in San Francisco... "Can I go? Please, please, please can I go???" Or something like that. Jeanette told me that she could get one of the Philippino housemaids to babysit the girls on the three workdays, so all I would have to do is take care of them in the mornings, evenings and the weekend. How hard could it be?
Jeanette did a great job of setting me up for success. She laid out a schedule for activities, meals and clothes, and even got their outfits ready for me. She knows where I would fail, left to my own devices...
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| Schedule for the week, including what to cook. I might not have followed that to the letter... |
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| More tips. Good wife! |
The car came at 7:00 Wednesday night to take J to the airport. When it was time for the girls to say bye to her, Ellie laughed and repeated, "No bye bye! No bye bye!" She was sure this must have been a joke. Fortunately the rest of that night went easily for the most part, since I usually do the bath time and bedtime duties anyway.
Thursday morning I stayed home until the babysitter (Love) got here to take care of the girls. I normally leave the house at 5:30 or 6:00 so I got up at normal time to get myself ready. The girls woke up at about 6:00 and Love got there at 6:25. I started to put on my nomex to make the 6:30 bus to the plant, but as soon as I did Lucy's bottom lip shot out and she started crying. I told her I could wait until the 7:00 ride. :) I have to say... eating breakfast at my own pace, enjoying my coffee and being able to spend some time with the girls before going to work was amazing. I might have to find a way to do that more often!
That night we went to Chili's for dinner with the Clarks and Copelands. It was a pretty normal dinner ("You asked for chicken nuggets. Why do you want macaroni now?" "You said milk, so I got you milk." "We are never going out to eat again.") but there was one significant highlight: For the first time ever, Lucy went poop in a public bathroom! I was equally proud and disgusted... could have picked a better place than the men's restroom at Jubail Chili's for such a milestone.
(Somehow I never had time to take pictures of dinner... any idea why???)
Friday morning was a repeat of Thursday, then Lucy went to Shenkir's to play with her friends, and we hung around for lunch. (Thanks!) That afternoon was the Murjan easter egg hunt and potluck, so it was good to take the morning easy. The 0-3 year old egg hunt started at 4:00, and (as every mother in Murjan can tell you) we showed up right on time. As in, NOT late. Both girls did pretty well hunting for eggs and ate entirely too much chocolate.
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| Princess Lucy over at Shenkir's. High heels too... |
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| Down to business at the Easter egg hunt. Lucy had to scope out the contents of each egg before putting it in her basket. Only the good stuff! |
Saturday morning can be summed up in this Facebook post that I wrote on Jeanette's wall:
After that, the morning was reasonably tame. We had to watch Frozen, of course, to get ready for Lauren Daugherty's birthday party. Lucy loved dressing up like Elsa. After a whirlwind weekend, we chilled out that afternoon and evening and just enjoyed some daddy-daughter time. And Ellie walked around roaring like a dinosaur. Just because.
It's 8 AM. Here's the day so far:
5:30- Ellie wakes up. Loudly. Lucy is quiet so I'm not moving. Don't want to get up.
6:00- Lucy starts talking, nice sister conversations, intermittent screams of "MAMAAA!"
6:15- Lucy opens the door. Very sweet and happy. I go get Ellie out of bed, bring them back to our room for some sweet snuggle time.
6:16- Snuggle time over. I let the girls play while I try and convince myself to get up. Ellie keeps bringing me random gifts, like a sock, a toy and a used Kleenex. Thanks.
6:30- I'm up. Girls need cough medicine.
6:31- Ellie has taken her cough medicine, asking for more. Lucy doesn't want anything to do with it.
6:32-7:00- World War III with Lucy. Threats about no Frozen party, no daddy/Lucy date, no hot cocoa, whatever else I can come up with. Wailing and gnashing of teeth.
7:00-7:05- I finally convince to take her medicine, one drop at a time. 5 mL is a lot of drops.
7:05- Go downstairs, set the girls up with cereal.
7:15- Pour my cereal, start to make coffee.
7:15-7:45- Respond to demands of the girls. Bowls, spoons, cups, feed me, I can feed myself... You know the drill.
7:45- Girls done with breakfast. I let them run around. I finish making my coffee.
8:00- I sit at the table with my (somewhat) hot coffee and my soggy cereal. Girls are watching YouTube commercials on the iPad in the kitchen, and I think eating goldfish out of the bag.
Love you! I know you're missing all of this...
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| The iPad- the great peacemaker. |
After that, the morning was reasonably tame. We had to watch Frozen, of course, to get ready for Lauren Daugherty's birthday party. Lucy loved dressing up like Elsa. After a whirlwind weekend, we chilled out that afternoon and evening and just enjoyed some daddy-daughter time. And Ellie walked around roaring like a dinosaur. Just because.
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| The two Elsas |
"I've got the eye of a toddler... and you're gonna hear me roar!"
Sunday morning came all too fast, as it usually does. When I got the girls up I noticed that they both had a bit of a cough and felt a little warm, but they didn't have a fever. I asked Lucy if she wanted to go to school, and she said no, so I told Love to go ahead and keep the girls home. I got to work at 7:30 and had meetings at 8:00, 9:00, 9:30 and 10:00 (which lasted until 12:15... Mind you I missed my 6:00 and 6:30 meetings!), then as I sat down to lunch at about 12:30 I got a call saying that both girls were running fevers and I needed to head home. Sigh. Thankfully by the time I got there both of their temps had started going down, so we never ended up going to the hospital. I have to say thank you to the Murjan wives (aka Night Ninjas) who helped out with the girls and made sure I was contacted just in case we did have to go!
Sunday night... Sunday night will go down in infamy. Sunday night was the Tylenol war. Again, we turn to my Facebook feed:
45 minutes to give Lucy 5 mL of Tylenol. FORTY FIVE MINUTES. FIVE MILLILITERS. AND IT WAS BERRY FLAVORED. I remember when medicine tasted bad. You have no excuse! After literally holding her down and force feeling her with a syringe, I asked her how it tasted. You know what she said? IT TASTED GOOD. Jeanette, come back. You've proven your point.
Monday- Not a whole lot to say. I could tell as soon as I got the girls up that it was going to be a sick day. Thankfully Love did a great job taking care of them, as always. When I got home, it was all about eating, getting ready for bed and waiting for mommy to get home! I set up the monitor with the iPad so some friends could watch the girls remotely, and went to the airport to get Jeanette. Her flight landed at 21:45 so I was hoping we would be home by 23:00, until I got this text: "Long line at customs :( You may want to go back to the car and take a nap. I'm nearly at the back of the windy line. I'd estimate about 80-100 people in front of me." Thankfully, miraculously, mercifully, it only took her about an hour to get through. And... she's home!!!
We survived!!!!! And for Mother's Day, the Night Ninja Husbands and I were crazy enough to buy our wives a weekend trip away to Dubai. Without the kids.
Did I learn anything from this?
Did I learn anything from this?
