Solo

Right about now, my husband is in a meeting a plane ride away.  He left yesterday afternoon and will be back tomorrow afternoon.  That means I’m here in Pittsburgh with a multiple night solo-parenting gig.

Along with all the normal solo-parenting responsibilities like dinner, cleaning, baths and bedtime, there is one additional duty.  For me a solo parenting gig means that I am responsible for picking up and dropping off the kids.  I’m not typically responsible for drop off and picking up.  Daycare is more than an  hour from my office, but just minutes from where my husband works so 99.9% of the time, he is in charge of daycare.

Yesterday I left work a little early and made the trek to daycare and picked up the boys. When I walked into Jack’s room at school, he saw me an  he got a huge smile on his face. He eagerly walked me to Xander’s classroom and then down to his locker to retrieve his art work. He was so tickled that I was there and he was able to show me his world.

This morning I loaded the boys into my car and headed off to daycare.  On the ride to daycare, I was treated to Jack dancing and singing to “Cake in the Breakroom”, Jack and holding his brother’s hand while they were in their respective car seats and Jack telling me how to get to daycare (he was amazingly accurate in his directions).  Oh and let’s not forget Jack yelling “MOMMY, SLOW DOWN! HERE COMES ANOTHER CAR!”  Never mind the fact that I wasn’t speeding and there were no other cars around.  And then there were the endless requests for milkshakes and Happy Meals. Jack was less than thrilled to be denied a milkshake at 7 in the morning, but we struck a nice compromise.

And while I am lucky that my boss allowed me to work from home to make my day a little less hectic, I am beyond grateful that I got to spend some extra time with the boys and get a glimpse into a part of their day that I rarely get to see.

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